I have a lot of love in my heart for a lot of people, but no one comes close to Jessica. The fact that I’ve gotten the chance to be this close to someone for this many years without a single falling out, very few arguments, and minimal struggle is still astounding to me every time I think about it. I couldn’t do it with anyone but Jess.

It’s so easy to be friends with Jessica because she, without realizing it sometimes, really does have the biggest heart. Jess thinks of others constantly (sometimes to a fault).I’ve never met anyone so fiercely considerate and selfless. She has this amazing witty sense of humor, too. Sometimes she tells a joke and I have to take 5 seconds to be shocked that anyone could come up with that before I start laughing. She also, again without realizing, is so wildly talented, I still can’t wrap my head around it sometimes.

Jess has the kind of artistic eye that comes so naturally that she’s not even aware of it most of the time. She doesn’t even realize how impossibly amazing her own work is. I’ve looked at her portfolio so many times, just because I’m still so amazed that this stuff came from my best friend. She just has an eye for it that is so beyond me. When we’re out shooting together, there are moments when she’ll say “this is perfect, I love this. We need to get some over here.” and I’ve learned to never question those moments, because Jessica sees the art in things when I can’t quite dig it out. A certain flower in a field, or a house on an old block, or a cluster of trees on the side of the road will have more artistic value than everything else surrounding it, and I can never quite pick it out until she snaps a photo and shows me later.

Sometimes I catch myself thinking that Jess is so drawn to these things because they’re so much like her; in plain sight, always there, out in the open, seemingly ordinary things that when looked at from the right perspective, stand so far above everything surrounding them. They hold a strange artistic significance that adds just a bit of beauty to everything in their vicinity. No matter how ugly or worn down or dull the world around Jessica Elliott gets, she can always do the same. She adds just a bit of a glow to everything she touches, every photo she takes makes the world seem enhanced by a half a step. She can find color where there is none, light in the darkest places, and love where love did not exist before.

Her passion for her art inspires my passions for life every single moment I spend with her, and I seldom look at her without having the very vivid, very conscious thought:

Any amount of luck this world has to offer could not have led me to a better best friend.

- Sydney