Radio Play and Mispronunciations

 ....And that track was a local artist and musician! Brianna Lynn!

I get this all the time. It’s BRENNA Lynn. Not Brianna Lynn, Briana Lynn, Brenda Lynn, Breena Lynn, Lin, Linn, Lynne, Lane…come on you’re not even trying at this point. Jenna but with a Br.

But hey…close enough. I’ll take it.

Plus….I was on the radio! Like the real, bona fide, terrestrial, broadcast radio! WJCU in Cleveland to be exact.
             How cool is that?!
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They played one of my songs and the tunes got carried over the air waves directly to people’s cars. I wonder if I brightened anyone’s day! I wonder if anyone felt understood. I wonder if anyone car danced to my music.

Even if no one heard my song, and even if they pronounced my name wrong, this was pretty amazing.

It restored something in me that I think I was forgetting.

It seems like I spend so much time pushing on walls, trying to make something move. I work, push, sweat, and struggle, only to look up at the wall and see no difference. I was starting to feel a little stuck lately, between some general life depression, writer’s block, and music stagnation. Staring at walls and feeling pretty weak.

But then, my music got played on WJCU. I reached out to them over a month ago, along with a million other media outlets, never receiving a reply, never knowing they even read my email.

And here’s the kicker…
 I didn’t even hear the music played, my uncle did. If he didn’t call, I would have never known my music was played. I would have never realized that they put my music on the radio.

I wonder how often this phenomenon happens. Your work paying off behind the scenes when you don’t even notice. Things falling into place without your knowledge. Walls finally crumbling while you’re somewhere else.

How comforting.

Who knows what effects we have that we are totally unaware of? Who knows? Maybe I’ve touched strangers or did something for them without even noticing. I know there are people that have done simple, kind things that they probably have totally forgotten about by now that have resonated with me or saved me on a dark day. A caring classmate sliding a kind card on my desk, a Starbucks employee giving me a free drink, a cool kid in high school defending me, people with big smiles or warm laughs, silly people playing on college green on a very bad day, a singer singing just the right words at an open mic night.

The people I’m referencing have no clue how much they helped me. ...Maybe I’ve been that person before. Maybe you have, too.

So listen to me closely…don’t stop pushing on walls. It’s hard, unrewarding work. But you’ve got to keep doing it. Work for your dreams, even when it seems like all your hard work is for nothing. Keep being kind to people, even if no one ever seems to care or notice. Keep living loudly and beautifully ...you never know who you might’ve helped to feel a little more alive today.

Maybe they’ll never know your name. Maybe they will scream it someday. Maybe they’ll pronounce it wrong.

-Brenna Lynn

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