{"id":34058,"date":"2021-05-14T21:33:37","date_gmt":"2021-05-15T01:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=34058"},"modified":"2021-05-20T23:55:31","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T03:55:31","slug":"how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/","title":{"rendered":"How Did Michelle and Barack Meet? A Love Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How did Michelle and Barack meet? How long have the Obamas been together?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Michelle and Barack Obama met in Chicago. He was interning at a law firm, and she was an associate. The two quickly became friends and began a relationship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about how Michelle and Barack met and how they pursued their goals together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How Did Michelle and Barack Meet? A Connection at Work<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>So how did Michelle and Barack Obama meet? <strong>While he was weighing his options for his future, Barack met a young woman who would change the course of his life.<\/strong> In 1989, he was working a summer internship at a Chicago law firm when he met a young associate named Michelle Robinson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Barack was immediately drawn to Michelle\u2014her beauty, her quiet self-confidence, and her fierce intelligence. Michelle soon became not just Barack\u2019s lover, but the closest friend he\u2019d ever known\u2014the closest friend he ever <em>would <\/em>know.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although Michelle was no less driven than Barack, her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/your-path-to-success\/\">path to success<\/a> was different. As a Black woman from the South Side of Chicago, she knew that that path was beset by potential pitfalls and roadblocks.<strong> Because of her race and her gender, she understood that she would always have to prove to others that she belonged in the room<\/strong>\u2014whether that room was at a high-powered Chicago law firm or, later, the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, she was tenacious, able to challenge Barack, but also push him to fulfill his highest potential. For her part, Michelle was attracted to Barack\u2019s idealism and his ability to inspire hope in others. A life with the ambitious Barack meant romance and adventure; a life with Michelle and her family promised Barack the stability and sense of rootedness that he\u2019d so often lacked during his childhood. They made an ideal couple, complementing one another and giving each what the other lacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Crucially, she <em>knew <\/em>Barack, as no one else could\u2014even himself. <strong>She recognized that he was incapable of taking the easy way out or taking the path of least resistance. Whenever he was faced with an easy path or a hard one, he would always choose to embrace the struggle<\/strong>. Her insight would prove prescient as they built their lives together.(Shortform note: To learn more about her thoughts and reflections on her life with Barack and her experiences as the nation\u2019s first African-American first lady, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/becoming\">read our summary of Michelle Obama\u2019s memoir, <em>Becoming<\/em><\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How did Michelle and Barack meet? How long have the Obamas been together? Michelle and Barack Obama met in Chicago. He was interning at a law firm, and she was an associate. The two quickly became friends and began a relationship. Read more about how Michelle and Barack met and how they pursued their goals together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,33,12],"tags":[274],"class_list":["post-34058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-people","category-relationships","tag-a-promised-land","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Did Michelle and Barack Meet? A Love Story - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How did Michelle and Barack Obama meet? The couple met at a law firm where they worked in 1989 and knew right away it was special.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Did Michelle and Barack Meet? A Love Story\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How did Michelle and Barack Obama meet? The couple met at a law firm where they worked in 1989 and knew right away it was special.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-15T01:33:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-21T03:55:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/obama-wedding.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"996\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"522\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carrie Cabral\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\"},\"headline\":\"How Did Michelle and Barack Meet? A Love Story\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-15T01:33:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-21T03:55:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/\"},\"wordCount\":420,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/obama-wedding.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"A Promised Land\"],\"articleSection\":[\"History\",\"People\",\"Relationships\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/\",\"name\":\"How Did Michelle and Barack Meet? A Love Story - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/obama-wedding.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-15T01:33:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-21T03:55:31+00:00\",\"description\":\"How did Michelle and Barack Obama meet? The couple met at a law firm where they worked in 1989 and knew right away it was special.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/obama-wedding.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/obama-wedding.jpg\",\"width\":996,\"height\":522},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How Did Michelle and Barack Meet? A Love Story\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56\",\"name\":\"Carrie Cabral\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Carrie Cabral\"},\"description\":\"Carrie has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been open to reading anything put in front of her. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. Surprisingly, it was never picked up by any major publishers, but did spark her passion for books. Carrie worked in book publishing for several years before getting an MFA in Creative Writing. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/carrie\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Did Michelle and Barack Meet? A Love Story - Shortform Books","description":"How did Michelle and Barack Obama meet? The couple met at a law firm where they worked in 1989 and knew right away it was special.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Did Michelle and Barack Meet? A Love Story","og_description":"How did Michelle and Barack Obama meet? The couple met at a law firm where they worked in 1989 and knew right away it was special.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-05-15T01:33:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-05-21T03:55:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":996,"height":522,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/obama-wedding.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Carrie Cabral","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Carrie Cabral","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/"},"author":{"name":"Carrie Cabral","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56"},"headline":"How Did Michelle and Barack Meet? A Love Story","datePublished":"2021-05-15T01:33:37+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-21T03:55:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/"},"wordCount":420,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/obama-wedding.jpg","keywords":["A Promised Land"],"articleSection":["History","People","Relationships"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/","name":"How Did Michelle and Barack Meet? A Love Story - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/obama-wedding.jpg","datePublished":"2021-05-15T01:33:37+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-21T03:55:31+00:00","description":"How did Michelle and Barack Obama meet? The couple met at a law firm where they worked in 1989 and knew right away it was special.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/obama-wedding.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/obama-wedding.jpg","width":996,"height":522},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-did-michelle-and-barack-meet\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Did Michelle and Barack Meet? A Love Story"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World&#039;s Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2ababb7c63a94ff5d2190f71dc417d56","name":"Carrie Cabral","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e9aea3c95254368e6bf388b046b35bacb82e4167f4c62c0813620e3a4ec51126?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Carrie Cabral"},"description":"Carrie has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been open to reading anything put in front of her. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. Surprisingly, it was never picked up by any major publishers, but did spark her passion for books. Carrie worked in book publishing for several years before getting an MFA in Creative Writing. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/carrie\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/obama-wedding.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34058"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35470,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34058\/revisions\/35470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}