Former President Barack Obama said dropping his oldest daughter Malia off at Harvard University's campus was such an emotionally charged experience it felt like “open-heart surgery”
"For those of us who have daughters, it just happens fast," Obama said during a reception for the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children Monday in Delaware.
"I dropped off Malia at college, and I was saying to Joe and Jill (Biden) that it was a little bit like open-heart surgery, and I was proud that I did not cry in front of her," he continued.
"But on the way back, the Secret Service was off, looking straight ahead, pretending they weren't hearing me as I sniffled and blew my nose. It was rough."
"And it's a reminder that at the end of our lives, whatever else we've accomplished, the thing that we'll remember are the joys that our children, and hopefully way later, our grandchildren bring."
19-year-old Malia started her first year at Harvard in August after deferring her enrollment for a year. The former first couple were seen on campus as they helped her move in.
While Malia takes on Harvard, the Obama family continues to live in Washington, D.C. while their younger daughter, Sasha, 16, finishes high school.
