vulnerability and sappy professions

As I think about leaving the country, a weight seems to settle on me.  This weight, I think, may signify the dread of loneliness that seems to be inevitable within the context of what I am about to do.  I have made a community here and I am now leaving that community.  Who knows what it will look like in 2 years time.  People will have moved, made different friends, gotten married, had children, fallen out of touch.  The Louisville I will come back to is not the Louisville I will be leaving.  This thought at times is overwhelming.

BUT

There is one group of people that I know I can come back to where time, change, failure, achievement, or need will not separate, rift, or break the relationship that we have established.  They may live in different cities, they may live at different stages, but they have stayed my close family for over 5 years now.  I hope that 2 more will be no big deal.

I have taken many portraits of these wonderful people over the years. My aim is to post some of them over the next few weeks.  Here are the first: some images taken of Marissa and Jordan before they got married in 2008.