WASHINGTON (AP) — jill biden she says she had no doubt she could continue teaching as first lady and overcame skepticism that she could handle both jobs by instructing her staff to “figure it out.”
in a new interview in the September issue of Real Simple magazineThe first lady describes how she uses Post-it notes to manage her large family and offers marriage advice to newlyweds hoping to celebrate 45 years of marriage as she and President Joe Biden did on June 17.
biden is the first first lady to continue her career outside the White House.
“I think people were a little skeptical. Could I really do it, since I was the first to try?” she said. “But I knew I wanted to teach.”
She said she told her staff, “This is what I want to do. We have to figure it out.”
Biden continues to teach English and writing at Northern Virginia Community College, which is where she taught during her husband’s eight years as vice president. Her staff at the time also doubted that she could teach and serve as second lady, but she managed.
“I saw it work then, and I knew we could figure out how to do it now,” he said.
Biden doesn’t like to use “juggling” or “balancing” to describe how he handles his responsibilities.
“You can’t do anything randomly,” he said. “You have to have a purpose while doing it, and it has to be organized. That’s the key.”
To that end, he relies on Post-it Notes to manage his family gatherings and avoid having to explain things over and over again. She posts instructions, such as “fill glasses with ice” or “light candles,” on her kitchen cabinets so that the family that arrives will know immediately how to help.
“Everything is set up so that when someone walks in, they do whatever they want to do,” he said.
The first lady also uses Post-it notes to communicate with the president.
“If I want to send Joe a message, I put one on his mirror,” he said. “It can be a nice ‘I missed you’ or ‘I hope you understand whatever it is you’re working on.'”
She said it has taken a lot of work for her and the president to reach 45 years of marriage. They were both previously married.
Joe Biden, 79 years old, he lost his first wife and his little daughter when the car he was driving collided with a truck in Delaware just before Christmas 1972. His two young children were seriously injured. Jill Biden, 71, has divorced her first husband.
“You have to work on any relationship, but especially on marriage. It’s not always 50/50,” she said. “Sometimes you lean on him, sometimes he leans on you. Sometimes he is super busy and I have to pick up a lot, or vice versa.
“The goal is that we are not in the same place at the same time, so that we can count on each other when we need it,” he added.