*things are happening

My little sister just started her senior year of high school. I snapped this picture last weekend, when my friend Crystal Liepa was taking senior portraits, a tradition that I find fascinating, especially in the context of a small town like Aitkin. There’s a memorial quality to the portraits, especially the ones taken outdoors. They’re meant to capture a brief moment in a young person’s life, but also the places in a small town that have personal and community resonance, and that in a short time, will be left behind. Even for the bright kids, I don’t think it’s always an easy choice, but most of them leave as soon as high school ends. Once they do, they know the odds are they’ll never live there again.