Michelle Obama's T Magazine Cover Will Kick You In The Feels

Just because you know something is coming, that doesn't make it any easier. In this case, we're talking, of course, about the day the Obamas officially leave the White House.

It's hard to pinpoint one thing we'll miss the most about Michelle Obama. She has, over the past eight years, handled the role of first lady with elegance, grace, wisdom and ― as we have been lucky to report on so many times ― great style.

Giving us yet another taste of what we will soon be missing, FLOTUS is one of T Magazine's cover stars for its current "Greats" issue. Sporting Roberto Coin earrings, a Calvin Klein top, stunning makeup and one seriously good set of brows, the masses have been blessed with what could very well be her last magazine cover in the White House.

Just when you thought you couldn't get kicked any harder in the feels, the story inside the magazine ― featuring love letters from the likes of Rashida Jones, Gloria Steinem, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Jon Meacham ― will really get you.

One especially spot-on comment comes from Adichie, whose beautiful account of Obama's tenure as first lady perfectly captured how she had "become an American style icon."

"Her dresses and workouts. Her carriage and curves. Toned arms and long slender fingers. Even her favored kitten heels, for women who cannot fathom wearing shoes in the halfway house between flats and high heels, have earned a certain respect because of her. No public figure better embodies that mantra of full female selfhood: Wear what you like."

What would you say in a letter to @michelleobama? For @tmagazine's #tgreats issue, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, @gloriasteinem, Jon Meacham and @rashidajones wrote thank-you notes to the first lady, who @gloriasteinem describes as "a tall, strong, elegant and seriously smart woman" who happens to live in the @whitehouse. "The important thing," Jon Meacham writes, "is that Mrs. Obama, a clear-eyed lawyer, found a way to withstand the scrutiny of the spotlight. ... To borrow a phrase from William Faulkner, she not only endured it; she prevailed over it." @rashidajones writes that #MichelleObama was the first #firstlady so show women that they don't have to choose. "If feminism's goal is equal opportunity and choice, Michelle makes me feel like every choice is available," she writes. "You can go to Princeton and Harvard, you can rap with Missy Elliott, you can be a mother and a lawyer and a powerful orator." And Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes that, watching @michelleobama speak at the 2016 @demconvention, "I realized then that she hadn't been waiting to exhale these past 8 years. She had been letting that breath out, in small movements, careful because she had to be, but exhaling still." Visit the link in our profile to read 4 letters to the first lady. The photographer Collier Schorr took this photo while on assignment for @tmagazine.
A photo posted by The New York Times (@nytimes) on Oct 17, 2016 at 12:04pm PDT

And wear what she likes, she does indeed. Whether it's said kitten heel, elaborate ball gowns, fun State of the Union looks or otherwise, Obama has cemented herself as a fashion icon forever.

Take a look at 52 of our favorite FLOTUS looks below, and join us in having a good old cry, won't you?