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中長大，但是接下來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、動情的眼淚。一位白宮官員說：白宮記者沒有發(fā)布新聞報道，也沒有向全球播放的照片。奧巴馬一家“將此視為私人的家庭時間”。

她的父母都沒有在畢業(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的里程碑和奧巴馬自己明年早些時候隱退橢圓形辦公室時，奧巴馬補充道：“我覺得瑪利亞很渴望走出白宮。”

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

當大女兒瑪利亞開始退出公眾視線，離開“鳥巢”時，奧巴馬坦率、動情地談起了這種感受：

“女兒要離開我了，這令我很傷感?！眾W巴馬在印第安納州一所中學演講中說道。

“如果這里有家長在，我希望你們能給我一些指點，讓我在女兒畢業(yè)典禮的時候不至于哭得太厲害，以免令她尷尬?！?/p>

3月份時，奧巴馬動情地回憶起一家人的白宮歷程，“當我首次當選的時候，瑪利亞10歲，薩莎才7歲。她們長得太快。這個秋天，瑪利亞將上大學，我哽咽了?！?/p>

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

在向常青藤盟校提交申請之前，媒體報道瑪利亞訪問了其他幾所頂尖大學，包括她母親的母?！樟炙诡D大學。奧巴馬說道：他提醒過自己的女兒不要太過于在乎學校的名聲。

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