Christmas in Hawaii was a dream, and finalizing our plans for medical school felt like a miracle. Seriously, a miracle. After all these years of uncertainty, anxiousness, prayers galore... MIRACLE. And then bam. This week happened. Max and I were both in separate car accidents in the last 4 days (positive note: not our faults at least), I have mono (again), and it's like wait a second, What on earth is happening here? We were on a roller coaster going up! Only up! WHAT IS HAPPENING.

(All caps and metaphors are entirely for dramatic purposes... but this week has been rough).

However, if I've learned anything over the last month (or this last week especially), I've been reminded of something I had read years ago when I was a teenager. John Bytheway once wrote about an experience he had had in high school. It was a rough day/week/month/whatever and when he talked to his Dad about it, his Dad had comforted him by saying, "John, this too shall pass." And it did. As all bad days and weeks and months always do. Not long after, however, as John was flying high and life was going just his way, he let his dad know that the bad days were gone for good - and that is when his Dad had to remind him yet again, "John, this too shall pass."

And as Frank Sinatra once sang, that's life.

So let me share once more what I've shared several times before, (so many times actually, that I now have it memorized as this seems to be one of the greatest tid bits of wisdom for my life):

"Life is like that—ups and downs, a bump on the head, and a crack on the shins. It was ever thus. Hamlet went about crying, “To be or not to be,” but that didn’t solve any of his problems. There is something of a tendency among us to think that everything must be lovely and rosy and beautiful without realizing that even adversity has some sweet uses. One of my favorite newspaper columnists is Jenkin Lloyd Jones. In a recent article published in the News, he commented:. . .

Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."

it's official.

I remember a sleepover I had with some girlfriends the summer I turned seventeen. Every single one of them were on their phones with “significant others” and I sat bored waiting impatiently for one of them to get off. They didn’t. So I decided to call one of my friends from an English class I had taken earlier that year; it was Max. We talked long after my friends got off their phones and went to bed, and I remember sneaking into the closet so we could keep talking until three or four in the morning. It was the first time I can remember him telling me that he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up. (I am pretty sure I told him that I just wanted to live on the beach in Hawaii one day. I know. Impressive life goals). Ten years later, and as of last night, it’s all official: Max will be entering the class of 2016 at the University of Utah School of Medicine this fall.

I wish there were enough words, or any words for that matter, to describe how proud I am but there aren’t. Just know that if we were to sit down somewhere and talk about it I would try not to cry. I've cried plenty of times, both happy and sad tears over the last few years as he's worked hard and sacrificed for this. It wasn't anywhere near easy, but that's what makes all of this more rewarding than if it had been.

So congratulations to my best friend in the entire world, and to that seventeen year old boy who had wanted and talked about this so long ago. You did it!

home away from home

It's been nine years (I repeat, nine years!!) since I first went out to school in Laie, Hawaii, but the second we stepped off the plane I told Max that it almost felt like I had never left. The North shore still feels like a home away from home in a million ways.

(sooo worth the $15 entrance fee to hike through waimea valley. unbelievably gorgeous!)

(Byodo-In Temple. I'm almost convinced that I need to go to Japan now. Max also dedicated most of his time here to finding people he could speak Japanese with)

(the chocolate haupia cream pie should be the only pie ever made anywhere ever)

(my old stomping grounds. we got to attend church while we were out there, and i told the lady sitting
 on the row behind us that I think the church is truest in Hawaii)

We did the usual touristy things of course, like visiting Pearl Harbor (which was especially moving for me this time) and the Dole Plantation (twice); but the highlights of course were spending 95% of our trip on the beach. Nowhere in the world are there beaches like the beaches on the North Shore of Oahu. Pipeline, Waimea, Sunset, Hukilau. Nothing else compares. And the food. Oh my heavens. I would no question be tan, fat and happy if I lived out there full-time. Ted's Bakery, Seven Brothers Burgers, The Garden Oven... I will happily admit I gained the freshman fifteen within five days.

Before we left for Hawaii, I made Max sign a contract (not kidding about this. I really did.) promising that this trip was entirely going to be about being with each other. No talks about medical school. No talks about debt. No church emails, work emails or bla bla bla. And it was by far the best 10 days for my adult life.

One night, after we were tired and sunburned from spending all of our time snorkeling and swimming, we laid in bed and talked about stuff. Random stuff. Non-important stuff. Non-life-changing stuff. And bam. Another snapshot for the memory books. And it didn't take place watching the beautiful Hawaiian sunsets, and honestly, something like that didn't need to happen on a Hawaiian vacation. It could happen anywhere. And that little snapshot proved to me (again) that it doesn't matter where we are, or where life does or doesn't take us, as long as I have Max around I'll be okay.

PS. We went swimming with sharks out in Haliewa, which really deserves a post of it's own, but in case I never get around to it I just want that HUGE fact out there: Kelsie Bingham went swimming with sharks.

january 2016

It's no secret that January is rough - especially for me. It's more rough when you have to leave 85 degree weather for the arctic tundra also called Utah and reality has to kick in again.

So the other night as we got into bed relatively early, something came over us. I don’t know why, but at 10:30 that night we got back out of bed, made a backwards breakfast (even though we had had dinner a few hours before) and put on a scary movie. It like it was 2010 again and I didn’t calculate how many hours of sleep I wasn't going to get. Or think about how many diet cokes I would need to sustain me through tomorrow's 8 hour workday. And although in reality I can only afford nights like that maaaaayyybbbe every now and then, it was good to not be grown up for four hours. I needed it. And January needed it too.