Barack Obama’s legacy is unsettled a week after he has left office, and rightfully so. It will take time to realize his greatness in its entirety. Obama managed to complete several landmark achievements despite working with some of the least productive Congresses in history and working in an era of widespread, hyper partisanship. It remains to be seen how much of Obama’s work the incoming administration will roll back, but history will look back kindly on Obama’s presidency. He left office last Friday with a 60% approval rating, the third highest of any President since WWII, trailing only Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.

Obama’s most notable achievement is likely the Affordable Care Act, as a Pew Research Poll taken in December found that 35% of Americans will remember him for healthcare. The nearly 20,000-page bill has been a subject of debate throughout his administration and beyond, as even some of his Democratic advisors considered it “political suicide” at the time. Still, there are many clauses of the bill that must be considered a universal success. For one, it is the first time in American history that a health insurer cannot deny anyone with a pre-existing condition. It also makes preventive care free, ensuring most people receive care before they need expensive emergency room services. Contrary to popular belief, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office confirmed Obamacare actually lowers the national spending deficit, while allowing 20 million people to gain insurance as recent estimates show. Most Americans, including Obama himself, agree that the ACA can be improved, but there is no denying that it has had many successes.

Barack Obama’s economic legacy will also be seen in a positive light. Obama took office in the heart of the worst recession since the Great Depression. Unemployment topped out at 10% in October 2009. Today, it is at 4.6%, the lowest since 2007. When he first stepped into the Oval Office, the economy was losing 700,000 jobs a month. Today, he leaves with a record 82 straight months of private sector job creation. He also regulated banks that became too big to fail with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, lessening the chances of another financial crisis.

Abroad, he negotiated a deal that requires Iran to end its nuclear weapons program and blocking its pathways to building a bomb, slowing down the developments if it were to break its commitments. He authorized the mission to kill America’s Most Wanted Osama Bin Laden, and ended U.S. combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also took diplomatic steps to normalize relations with Cuba, allowing American tourists to freely visit. Arguably most important, he secured U.S. Commitment to the 2015 Paris Agreement, in which 197 nations agree to reduce global carbon emissions and limit the global rise in temperatures, facing sanctions if they do not uphold their end of the bargain.

Domestically, the federal prison population fell for the first time since 1981 during Obama’s two terms. In October 2016, the high school graduation rate reached a record high of 83.2%. Obama’s administration also cut veteran homeless by nearly 50% since initiating the “Opening Doors” initiative in 2010. He ordered companies with over 100 employees to disclose pay data based on race and gender to address the pay gap. He is the first president to have a scandal-free administration since Dwight Eisenhower, and exercised impeccable grace in response to wild conspiracy theories perpetrated by his opponents, the most popular of which was Donald Trump’s “Birtherism” movement.

Obama will undoubtedly be leaving his successor a better America than he received. The list of his achievements goes on, but he arguably completed his most important on his first day in office – breaking the presidential color barrier. He and his family moved into a White House built by slaves and represented us with class, dignity, and civility. Whether we realize it yet or not, we will be thankful for their service.