We are always saying goodbye because...

Everything is always happening.

Jordan did not shoot Willie.  But Willie and Jordan are somewhere teasing someone else. Performing a little bit.  Using a dry sense of humor.  Humble and hardworking but in the most laid back way you could imagine.

I am always saying goodbye to them now.  Because that has already happened.  I said goodbye to Jordan last year, and somewhere in California, Jordan's life is thriving and more interesting than I could imagine. And yet in one way this picture is still happening, he is still in my office:  funny, honest, eager, real.  And in another way I am meeting his parents at graduation and giving him a hug and saying goodbye and feeling bad that he is leaving.

Because that is what is beautiful about being human, all our history is always happening to us again and again.  Right now.  And not right now.

And there's Matt, sitting across from the table from them.  While Jordan doesn't shoot Willie and they're both laughing.  And in a minute, Jordan and Willie will take turns with my camera and next year (now it's this year!) Matt will come back to this same seat in my same office by himself and we will talk together about his script.  We will hash out the details and figure out the best way to squeeze an epic story into 90 minutes.  And the next moment, he will be stopping by my office to say goodbye and I will not be there and he'll write a handwritten note that says nice things, and I'll keep it. 

And he'll always be the new guy with the deep voice coming in as a junior transfer student and gives good solid presentations in my history and theory of film class even though nobody knows him before this moment, and no one expects him to give good presentations, and the next moment everyone will ask him to read their script during the workshop.  Over and over he'll get cast as the male lead or the villain.  One minute the new guy the next minute the go-to guy.  

One minute I am in college, the next minute, I am shepherding all these people through college.  They sit at my table and we talk, we dream, we plan, we hurry.  

Everything is always happening.