Laura Joy | Franklin Portrait Photography

There are just some people you meet and you instantly know that your life will never be the same. Laura Joy and I met at the airport before we embarked on one of the greatest adventures of our lives. Almost six years ago now (and I can't believe it's been that long ago already), she and I traveled with a number of other Belmont students to Spain for six months. In the 8-hour plane ride to Madrid, Laura Joy and I discovered just how much we had in common, right down to the annoyingly unique bumps on our noses. 

So for six weeks, we traveled together, discovered new foods together, stepped back into history together, shopped together, cried together - even lived in the same flat together. With our awesome host mother - a cute little old lady with pink hair. Seriously. Upon returning to the States, we decided that we didn't want to lose the friendship we'd made.

Here she is, one of my dearest friends:

Laura Joy is a fabulous teacher, fiercely dedicated to her students. She's also a model (uh, can you tell?) and owns her own business, Building Perceptions, that offers things like media production, Web design and computer repair (PC-only, which makes Mac people like myself very, very sad). 

So going along with her passion for videography and modeling, it's no surprise that LJ has a closet full of costumes. The gloves in the photos above got her a gig in Lady Antebellum's music video for "Lookin' for a Good Time". (Front and center in the crowd). And the 60's dress in the photos below? Owned, worn and preserved by Joy Palma, LJ's equally-as-beautiful mother. My mom got rid of anything this cool, including those knee-high boots that she would never have let me leave the house wearing.

 

I should mention that the butterfly ring LJ's wearing in the photo above is one of the many souvenirs we brought back with us from our trip to Spain. The trip was one giant adventure, but this little baby had us speaking with the Spanish police. It's a long story, but let's just say that we were incredibly thankful for a sweet shop lady who befriended us and bridged the language gap.

I'm thankful for this friendship. I just have to think....where would we be if we hadn't sat next to each other on that flight to Spain?