What does “ground” mean in the context below? (from Michelle Obama’s Beginning)

Craig, my brother, in his ambling and smiley way, had conveniently broken every trail for me. I had aways been known as Craig’s little sister. Now, though, I was just Mitchelle Robinson, with no Craig attached. At Whitney Young(her new high school), I had to work to ***ground*** myself. My initial strategy involved keeping quiet and trying to observe my new classmates.

Is “ground oneself” an idiom? Thanks in advance for your answer.

Question

What does “ground” mean in the context below? (from Michelle Obama’s Beginning)

Craig, my brother, in his ambling and smiley way, had conveniently broken every trail for me. I had aways been known as Craig’s little sister. Now, though, I was just Mitchelle Robinson, with no Craig attached. At Whitney Young(her new high school), I had to work to ***ground*** myself. My initial strategy involved keeping quiet and trying to observe my new classmates.

Is “ground oneself” an idiom? Thanks in advance for your answer.

Answer

To ground oneself means to consider things from the perspective of common people.

It is often used when referring to a hierarchy where there is someone "on top", such as an army commander, or a movie star, and they have forgotten that their life is different from the people at the bottom of the hierarchy. To resolve this they need to metaphorically "come down from the mountain top" and "get back to the ground".

Answer

To establish herself. To put down roots in order to grow.

Answer

The idea of being ‘grounded’ can have a number of subtle meanings. Here, the idea of ‘grounding herself’ has to do with learning how to be accepted and able to fit in - to belong in a certain environment - without the help of her brother . The idea of ‘staying grounded’ as mentioned elsewhere is to remember where you came from and how you started after you have success.

To me, they both bring up the image of a plant rising out of a seed in the ground.