listen love, sunshine makes my life.

This week has been marvelous. Sunshine times a lot. It's kind of like when you've been waiting for your birthday for a whole year and then it comes. But instead of having the big soirée for a only one day, it comes for a whole week straight! Birthdays! A week of birthdays! A whole straight week of sunshiny birthday suit days! Anyway -I didn't mean that. Ps, my 19th birthday is in 19 days :)

Here's the thing, is that people look better when there is sun on their faces. I fall in love with everybody on a sunny day. Flip flops, dresses, ray bans, tie dye, and tank tops. If you are my future wife, plan on wearing some of those treasures. Also, plan on being in love everyday of your life, singing together, and drawing our names in the sand. Just a little plug in case you're out there. Loves.

Spring is everybody's favorite season, they just haven't realized it yet. Really though, just look at how everybody takes their shoes off and lays in the grass on the first warm and sunny day. Everybody smiles, and everybody laughs. I found this quote that says-

"If you want to see the sunshine, you have to weather the storm."

Well baby, the storms busted this popsicle stand so let's be lovers in the sun. Here are the ingredients: blanket, kool-aid, flowers, lunch box, sandbox, and someone that you adore. Before you know it, we'll be knocking at summer's front door.

Love,

Ideas on a card. An "Idea Card"

I have an "idea card." It's a note card that i keep in my wallet for when i have an idea I don't want to forget, or for when I hear something amazing. I just filled up my first card:

• Give her wings to fly. -Pres. Hinckley

• Why do the rich people get the credit for things? They may pay for a house, but it is human beings who actually create it. It's society, not the rich person.

• The week should be 5 days, not 7. It makes sense. 365 is divisible by 5, so January 1st would always be a Monday. Holidays would always be the same day of the week.

• You have to love who you teach. When you do, they'll know it. You can't hide it. -Elder Rector

• Just because an advertisement asks you if you want a five star hotel by the airport, doesn't mean there is one.

• When you hug someone, you should feel a lot more than the physical. Ho much emotion you feel from the touch has a lot to do with how much someone means to you.

• A half hour of truly heart-felt service makes you feel better than running or exercise.

I was thinking last night about home. I am always in a mood to talk to my mom or go be with my family. The thing is that I can't just swing by the house when I live 2,000 miles away. Then I was like "wait, where is my home again?" Because, I've lived at BYU for 2 semesters. This is where I live, so essentially you could say it's my home, for the moment at least. I am a college student with a college lifestyle. If I went to my Ohio home, I would be missing a big part of my life. But, while I stay here I am also missing a big part of my life back in Ohio.

I guess you could say that I've split my soul into two horcruxes. One sits in P Town, and one sits in the Boro. When I go on my mission I'll make a third horcrux for France.

Ahyeah, I'm a wizard.

p.s. this is my new favorite song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r9pajBwiAk

J'ai Obtenu Mon Appel de Mission.

Paris.

The France Paris Mission.

Dear Elder Coburn:

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the France Paris Mission...

It is perfect. For me. Everything about it makes me excited. I have been there when I was little but I don't remember a lot. I took four years of French in high school, so you can imagine my excitement. For example, take the excitement of our weekly french toast night, multiply that by about a few million and you are about a fourth of how excited I am. D'accord? OH! My roommate Sean opened his mission call two days before me! Guess where he is going?! Paris. Same day.

I have two French flags in my room, and a picture of a little boy from France (holding roses. he's a sweet heart. his name is Wyatt). My homepage is http://www.eglisedejesuschrist.fr/.

I often listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K1q9Ntcr5g.

And I am usually watching THIS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCQZvLPIiVo.

(if you're going to click any of the links, this. is. the. one.) Also, French bread from the creamery is divine.

In other news, our club, The Adventure Boys, went out for a treat the other night. What kind of a treat? Well. We got scalp treatments at the local beauty school. Listen to this: scalp brushing, peppermint tingly shampoo stuff, head massage for fifteen minutes, rinse, shampoo, rinse, condition, rinse, blow dry. All for one easy payment of only SIX DOLLARS. It''s kind of a big deal.

The snowboarding has been mmh mmh good. We (Josh Caleb, Shannon and myself) traveled to Brighton on President's Day. It may be the best resort to have ever been born. This picture resulted. Guess who's who? It's irrelevant.

My cousin Erica sojourned in Provo last weekend. I LOVE her. Our fun included an all day photo shoot, holding a tarantula, holding a boa constrictor, food, crashing a dance, crashing a dorm, theatre history class, and more. If you weren't there you missed out. So... probably there are some people that missed out. I'll do something nice for you.

Anyhow. I am having a mad love affair with life that I need to get back to. Here's something for the road:

Ben: "Mom, I am neglected. I have middle child syndrome."

Mom: "Yeah. Oh well."

I am the Luckiest.

Yesterday I was in a car crash.

Never in my life have I been able to see all my blessings like I do right now. Moments like this have a way of highlighting everything that really matters. The whole thing about "your life flashing before your eyes" is about half-way true. It's only half-way true because your flashback doesn't include the hours wasted on the computer, or time not spent with people you care about. In that split second flashback you think about your family, your friends, and how you want to be with them forever. You think about your passions and talents, and how Heavenly Father has given you all of those things that you have grown to love.

The crash happened on the way home from a day of snowboarding. There were three of us in the car when we lost control while rounding a turn in Provo Canyon. After being rudely awakened from my nap, I realized that the front of our little Honda was stuck in the snowbank on the right side of the road. My hand was a little cut from the snowboard sitting next to me, and Grant and Eric's skis had flown off the ski rack into the snowbank. While Grant got out of the passenger seat to grab the skis, a car of three people stopped to see if we were okay. We assured them we were fine and we would be out of there in no time. Wouldn't that have been nice?

I remember them looking over the car, yelling, and then turning to dive over the snowbank. Luckily, they got out of the way. I was sitting behind the passenger seat on the right side of the car. I looked up-road for a split second, saw a huge suburban feet away, then turned the other way as fast as I could. I don't think I've ever been hit that hard in my life. The car door pounded my back as the suburban crashed into the side of us. Glass went flying all over, and the noise was heart wrenching. Judging by the bruise, something hit the top of my head. Judging by my sore knees, they were slammed into something. But that's about it. How does that happen? Nobody else got hurt, and I barely did. Why did we get so lucky? Why did I get so lucky?

You know what is so cool? The first things that came to mind when I got hit were about Heaven, beliefs, religion, and family. And don't you think those are the first things that would come to anyone else's mind? Despite their lifestyle or beliefs? I think so, and I don't think that it's much of a coincidence.

Every time I've told the story I've thought of new ways I was watched over yesterday. So here is a list of tender mercies:

-I happened to be wearing my snowboarding coat with the hood up. This protected me from the shattering glass all around me.

-Grant was not in the car anymore, so I was the only one sitting on the side of the impact. He probably would've been a little worse off.

-The paramedics were LDS. That was so cool because they told me that obviously Heavenly Father still has a plan for me. I said, of course he does, and it starts with my mission in a few months.

-If the three people hadn't been talking to us before the crash I probably would've taken my seat belt off, gotten out of the car, and been standing in the middle of the crashing cars.

-My snowboard, Anastasia, survived the crash perfectly.

-I had almost gotten Anastasia's edges sharpened that day.. for some reason I didn't. Since the edges were dull it only left me with a few cuts. Instead of a missing hand?

-One of my best friends, Brad Zynda, said a prayer for me that night without even knowing anything had happened. I love him.

-My two older brothers, Josh and Caleb, live nearby and were able to give me a blessing that same night. I love them.

-One of the people in the suburban was a firefighter, so he was able to patch me up even before the paramedics arrived.

-Two of the most amazing people, Taylor Olson and Taylor Berhow, came and got me and kept me sane for the rest of that night. We had bread pudding. I love them.

-That happened to be the day that I met another BYU freshman at Park City, and so I have a new ride to the ski resort. At least that's a tender mercy to me.

I am the luckiest. By that I mean I so blessed right now. All the people who have rushed to see if I am okay, or if I need anything, have made me feel so so so loved. Thank you. I know that there are things I'm supposed to do on Earth still, and angels protected me yesterday for that exact reason.

Everybody's Doing It

Am I really doing it?

A few minutes ago I was invited to view a friend's new blog. Then I got to thinking, am I the only one without a blog? No, but for reasons of practicality -yes. I was first inspired by the girls over at the dollhouse. Their blog is simply the best. Furthermore, today is Thursday and we all know what that means! Nothing but ice skating class. 2-3:40. What a day to blog... take a break for some waltz jumps and triple salchows... then blog.

Gambling. Essentially, thats what a blog is. If I spend all this time writing, how do I know that even one person is going to read it? Do people even like reading blogs? Publishing a new post is like pulling the lever on the slots. If three lucky 7's role out, then that is 21 people to read my blog. But if I pull a cherry, a diamond, and a star, then what good does that do me? Cherries can't read, diamonds are in the sky with Lucy, and stars like Taylor Swift hardly have the time to read about the lives of their biggest fans. Me.

So I'm hoping that the slot machine rolls out everybody that I love. Because what use is living if you can't love and be loved? Rhetorical.

And GUESS WHAT?! I submitted my mission papers to my bishop yesterday!! ...Elder Benjamin Quinn Coburn. Not quite yet, but it's got a nice ring, huh? I am way too excited to describe. Ok, but here's a secret. I really am scared about having expectations for where I will be called. Of course, everybody wants to be called to Atlantis, or some equally enchanting part of the world. I am trying my very hardest not to expect some place really cool. And no doubt, I will go wherever the Lord needs me.