Barack Obama was the first president I remember. I know when I was born Bill Clinton was in office. But after my eighth birthday, it is President Barack Obama’s election I remember.

My parents and I were sitting on my living room floor of my old house. I kept asking my parents questions about why some states were red and others were blue because I wasn’t old enough to understand.

Eight years later, I am now 16 and America has elected a new president.

For the last eight years, America has had the same classy, respectful Obama family in office.

Now we welcome our new president: Donald Trump.

While I am not political, I realize the Obamas have left a deep impression on me. This couple has taught me what true love looks like, that priorities as a couple change the longer they’re together to loving someone beyond their career or looks.

Out of all these lessons, one spoke a little louder than the rest: remember the happy memories I have spent with the people I have loved.

This not only applies to marriage but all kinds of relationships whether it be my best friend, my boyfriend, or my parents.

In one of Barack Obama’s speeches he said one of the most gratifying moments of his life was the week when he won historic victories on trade, healthcare and gay rights but his best week ever was the week he married his beautiful wife Michelle Obama.

Often I catch myself forgetting the big things in my life.

When I wanted to quit volleyball after seven years of playing, I forgot to remind myself why I even started in the first place. I’ve dedicated so much of my life to the sport. Volleyball has made me cry, it has given me so many opportunities, it has blocked out all the bigger problems in my life. When I’m playing on the court and my team and I stomp up and down in excitement, hugging and jumping on each other, screaming our lungs out because we just won, it is the greatest feeling in the world. Why would I want to give that up?

I come across predicaments in my life all the time. What I really need is to ask my mom for advice but I often hesitate telling her. I have to remind myself everything my mom has done to help me because I simply told her what was going on and how I felt.

I need to remember the times she has held me in her arms as I sob in tears on her shoulder. She tells me how stupid boys are and how I don’t need boys in my life that don’t treat me well.

When my long-distance best friend and I are fighting over not making time to see each other, I need to realize four years of friendship is not worth losing over a silly argument. All the pain in our stomachs from laughing so hard, crying over immature boys and mean girls, dancing and singing “wherever you go, just always remember, that you got a home for now and forever and if you get low, just call me whenever, this is my oath to you,” in the bathroom mirror to “Oath” by Cher Lloyd while brushing our teeth: all of these things outweigh all the fights.

When my boyfriend and I are having a fight over miscommunication or drama, I get so heated that I don’t want to talk to him for the rest of the day, but I have to remind myself why I started dating him in the first place. He makes me laugh until I cry. He loves my family and my little siblings just as much as me. He is always there to support me whether it be volleyball, friends, or something goofy as picking the high apples off the apple tree that I barely can reach.

There will be many times in my life where I want to get up and leave. Sometimes I just want to drop everything and walk out.

I’m sure they were plenty times Michelle Obama wanted to give up while her husband was in charge of running the country.

But, whether it be on Ellen Degeneres’s talk show or in a speech, they reminded each other of the happy times together: their first date, their wedding day, both of their daughters’ first birthday.

It is essential to remind myself of the happy memories; they are the reasons these amazing, strong relationships exist in the first place.

I would like to thank the Obama family for the examples they have set and the lessons they have taught me.