Malia Obama kept tearing up as she listened to her dad's farewell speech. "I am most proud to be your dad." pic.twitter.com/pHrba2WxO8 — Mashable News (@MashableNews) January 11, 2017

It was a question asked by many during President Obama’s farewell speech on Tuesday night: Where was Sasha?

Obama’s wife, Michelle, and eldest daughter, Malia, were in attendance at his address in Chicago. However, notably absent from the crowd was his 15-year-old daughter, Sasha.


After the speech ended, a White House official told reporters that the younger Obama daughter stayed back in Washington, D.C., because she has an exam at school in the morning.

Viewers became especially aware of her absence after Obama read a touching tribute to his daughters, one that made Malia wipe away a stream of tears with a tissue.

“Malia and Sasha, under the strangest of circumstances, you have become two amazing young women, smart and beautiful, but more importantly, kind and thoughtful and full of passion,” Obama said during his speech. “You wore the burden of years in the spotlight so easily. Of all that I’ve done in my life, I’m most proud to be your dad.”

Sasha, 15, attends Sidwell Friends, a highly selective school in the nation’s capital. On the school’s website, a schedule for the Upper School’s mid-academic year exams lists a science exam scheduled for 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

Listed on the same page, the exam protocols include guidelines that ‘‘students must adhere to the published examination schedule. Absence for travel is not an adequate reason to re-schedule an exam.’’