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While #relationshipgoals is a toxic concept because it’s impossible to truly know what is going on behind closed doors when it comes to people’s marriages, it’s not abnormal to have married couples whom you look up to. For many, Forever President Barack Obama and Forever First Lady Michelle Obama happen to be one of those couples. For this reason, it’s not surprising that when the Washington Post’s Pop Culture Writer, Helena Andrews-Dyer, was about to get married, she sought marital advice from Mrs. Obama. During their conversation, Andrews-Dyer received three golden nuggets from Mrs. Obama. The first piece was about the wedding.
“I was just about to get married and I asked her, ‘What is the advice that you would give to someone who is about to get married and is about to embark on this crazy adventure?'” Andrews-Dyer recalled during a recent appearance on The YBF Podcast. “She told me a couple of things. For one, she told me, ‘Don’t trip off of the wedding. Someone is going to come with the wrong shoes on. Someone is going to wear the wrong thing. Don’t trip. It is one day. Don’t trip.’ And she said ‘trip,’ which I thought was so funny.”
The second piece was about the realities of marriage.
“Then she told me, ‘Marriage is hard for everybody. Don’t think it’s just you. When people come to me and they’re like, Oh, we had a couple of bad months.’ And she was like, ‘Months? It could be years. Marriage is tough. It’s not just you. It’s a tough thing,” Andrews-Dyer, who recently authored Reclaiming Her Time: The Power of Maxine Waters. went on.
Lastly, she harped on the importance of authenticity within marriage.
“The last thing that she said to me was, ‘Always be your authentic self.’ I’m remembering exactly her words,” the reporter and author shared. “‘What sustained Barack and me for all of these years is that we’re both our authentic selves in this relationship. I’m not trying to pretend to be somebody else. He’s not trying to pretend to be somebody else. We are who we are and we love those people.’ This was six or seven years ago when she told me this and I remember it to this day and I always try to keep that in mind.'”
