Malia Obama has grown up in the public eye， but this next big step shes taking is in private.

The First Daughter， 17， was graduated from Washington， DCs private Sidwell Friends School and her parents had determined to attend and applaud1—and shed a proud， sentimental tear or two—just like any other parent. No press coverage by White House reporters and no photos to be broadcast across the globe. The Obamas “are treating this as a private family moment，” a White House official says.

Neither of her parents was scheduled to speak at the ceremony.

The President made his first appearance on The Tonight Show and told host Jimmy Fallon that hes got a pair of sunglasses ready for his oldest daughters graduation—just in case he cant stop the tears.

“I think Malia ... is very eager to get out of the White House，” he added about her upcoming milestone and his exit from the Oval2 early next year.

During her four years at the private Washington high school， Malia played soccer and tennis， practiced the flute and the piano. Also， she studied a handful of subjects， including Spanish—which was evident during the familys recent trip to Cuba， where she acted as an interpreter for her father. President Obama told ABC News that his daughters Spanish is “much better” than his own.

While Malia may be crossing the commencement3 stage out of the public eye， the President has spoken candidly—and emotionally—about what its like to have his oldest daughter leaving the nest.

“My daughter leaving me is just breaking my heart，” the president said in a speech at an Indiana high school.

“If there are any parents here， I hope you can give me some pointers on how not to cry too much at the ceremony and embarrass her.”

And in March， the president reflected sentimentally on the familys White House adventure. “When I was first elected to this office， Malia was 10 and Sasha was just 7，” he said. “And they grew up too fast. This fall， Malia heads off to college. And Im starting to choke up.”

Although President Obama brought up Malias impending4 college semester， a May statement from the White House revealed that the teenager will take a gap year before she follows in her fathers footsteps and attends Harvard in the fall of 2017.

Before committing to the Ivy League school， Malia reportedly toured several other top universities， including her mothers alma mater5， Princeton. The President said he reminded his daughter not to get hung up on a name.

“One piece of advice that Ive given her is not to stress too much about having to get into one particular college，” he said during a town hall on college affordability6. “There are a lot of good colleges and universities out there. Just because its not some name-brand， famous， fancy school doesnt mean that youre not going to get a great education there.”

瑪利亞·奧巴馬在公眾的視線(xiàn)中長(zhǎng)大，但是接下來(lái)她要走的一大步卻鮮有人知了。

這位17歲的“第一女兒”，在華盛頓特區(qū)的私立薩德維爾朋友學(xué)校畢業(yè)，她的父母決定參加并為她喝彩——就像別的父母一樣流下自豪、動(dòng)情的眼淚。一位白宮官員說(shuō)：白宮記者沒(méi)有發(fā)布新聞報(bào)道，也沒(méi)有向全球播放的照片。奧巴馬一家“將此視為私人的家庭時(shí)間”。

她的父母都沒(méi)有在畢業(yè)典禮上發(fā)表演講的打算。

奧巴馬出現(xiàn)在《今晚秀》節(jié)目中，并告訴主持人杰米·弗倫：他已經(jīng)為大女兒的畢業(yè)典禮準(zhǔn)備好了一副墨鏡，防止自己忍不住流眼淚。

在談及瑪利亞即將到來(lái)的里程碑和奧巴馬自己明年早些時(shí)候隱退橢圓形辦公室時(shí)，奧巴馬補(bǔ)充道：“我覺(jué)得瑪利亞很渴望走出白宮?！?/p>

在私立華盛頓中學(xué)的四年里，瑪利亞踢足球、打網(wǎng)球、練長(zhǎng)笛和鋼琴。她也學(xué)了其他一些課程，包括西班牙語(yǔ)——這在奧巴馬全家最近的古巴之旅中尤為明顯，在那里，瑪利亞充當(dāng)了他父親的翻譯。奧巴馬告訴ABC新聞他女兒的西班牙語(yǔ)比他自己的“好很多”。

當(dāng)大女兒瑪利亞開(kāi)始退出公眾視線(xiàn)，離開(kāi)“鳥(niǎo)巢”時(shí)，奧巴馬坦率、動(dòng)情地談起了這種感受：

“女兒要離開(kāi)我了，這令我很傷感?！眾W巴馬在印第安納州一所中學(xué)演講中說(shuō)道。

“如果這里有家長(zhǎng)在，我希望你們能給我一些指點(diǎn)，讓我在女兒畢業(yè)典禮的時(shí)候不至于哭得太厲害，以免令她尷尬。”

3月份時(shí)，奧巴馬動(dòng)情地回憶起一家人的白宮歷程，“當(dāng)我首次當(dāng)選的時(shí)候，瑪利亞10歲，薩莎才7歲。她們長(zhǎng)得太快。這個(gè)秋天，瑪利亞將上大學(xué)，我哽咽了?！?/p>

盡管奧巴馬談到了女兒日益臨近的大學(xué)生涯，5月份白宮的一項(xiàng)聲明顯示：在2017年秋天，像他父親那樣，在進(jìn)入哈佛大學(xué)之前，瑪利亞將有一段“間隔年”時(shí)間。

在向常青藤盟校提交申請(qǐng)之前，媒體報(bào)道瑪利亞訪(fǎng)問(wèn)了其他幾所頂尖大學(xué)，包括她母親的母?！樟炙诡D大學(xué)。奧巴馬說(shuō)道：他提醒過(guò)自己的女兒不要太過(guò)于在乎學(xué)校的名聲。

在一次關(guān)于大學(xué)費(fèi)用的市政廳講話(huà)時(shí)，奧巴馬說(shuō)：“我給了女兒一條建議，不要太在乎進(jìn)入某所大學(xué)，這里有很多好的大學(xué)。非名牌、名氣不響的學(xué)校并不意味著你在那里得不到好的教育。”