To My Love,
It’s been five years. Five beautiful years. Since you made me the happiest man in the world. Since you became my wife. But our life together started long before that, didn’t it? We’ve been married in our hearts since we were 18. Well, you were 17. You always like to remind me that you’re younger. You never let me forget that, and you probably never will. That 18-year-old version of me, that scrawny boy who thought he was a man, wrote you a letter and sealed it in an envelope. He told you that he loved you and couldn’t wait for what was ahead. I smile thinking about that kid, thinking about us as kids, because that’s what we were, really, just two young pups ready to take on the world — together. We didn’t know what “ahead” was. We had no clue where life would take us. But we knew one thing: whatever it was or wherever it went, we’d go together.
That’s the story of our relationship, isn’t it, my love? Moving mountains. Taking risks. Sacrificing safety. All for the goal, the commitment, the pact, that we made as teenagers, to bear witness to each other’s life and maximize the time we spend together on this earth. It’s why I came home from college as a freshman and left law school after only eight weeks. Most people thought I was giving up my dreams. I was really just getting a jumpstart on our future. It’s why I taught in the classroom next door to yours for four years, and it’s why we worked nights and weekends for years building our business.
It’s why I’m sitting across the kitchen table from you writing this. It’s why we’re here.
We’re living a dream that’s better than we ever thought possible. We still pinch ourselves every morning, don’t we? It’s still hard to believe most days. That God gave us the good fortune of turning nothing into something, of making a living and a life, one that lets us photograph love, write what’s in our souls, teach to our heart’s content and travel the world together. It’s a blessing, and there’s not a day that goes by that we forget it.
And if we could go back and tell our story to the 18-year-old versions of ourselves, I think they’d be pretty proud, because, so far, we’ve accomplished their goal.
Happy five years of marriage to my best friend in the universe.
With all of me,
Jordan