HONOLULU, Hawaii (CNN) — President Barack Obama will deliver his farewell address to the nation on January 10 from his home city of Chicago, the President announced in a statement Monday.
“I’m thinking about them as a chance to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you’ve changed this country for the better these past eight years, and to offer some thoughts on where we all go from here,” Obama wrote.
President Obama said he was following the precedent set by George Washington, who penned a farewell address to the American people over 220 years ago.
George W. Bush also delivered a farewell address in 2009 from the White House.
“Since 2009, we’ve faced our fair share of challenges, and come through them stronger,” Obama wrote Monday.
“That’s because we have never let go of a belief that has guided us ever since our founding — our conviction that, together, we can change this country for the better.”
President Obama has said that while he won’t weigh in on every issue once he is out of the White House, he would consider speaking up about issues that go to “core questions” about American values and ideals.
Chicago is where President Obama got his start in politics after graduating from Harvard Law School and where the first family called home before moving to the White House. Obama’s presidential library will also be located in Chicago.
