Braydyn Lents
Bio
Journalism major, junior year college student at Indiana University Bloomington, freelance writer, reporter, and columnist, staff writer for The Hoosiers Network, Class of 2024.
Stories (3/0)
How Did Formation?
If a band of sand was formed by the sea, then what made Earth become a planet, and if the Earth is a planet, how did the solar system form into the universe we know of today, and if the universe became the universe then how did we become human.
By Braydyn Lents12 months ago in Fiction
"I Broke My Hip"
I have to tell you a story because when I was a senior in college, I quickly discovered myself. I had woken up late, really late in fact, and arose from my queen size mattress in the hotel room reserved for me and my radio broadcasting partners, who slept in the other room. Outside of the Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana where I and four other members of our tiny college radio station in South Dakota, were to broadcast the NCAA Division V Women’s Basketball National Championship Tournament. The men’s team sucks, but I’ll talk about that throughout this book. To an alarm clock that has been characterized as a buzzing noise similar to watching “The Shining.” Eerily loud for sure. I woke up from a late slumber and arose to the sounds of springtime bird chirping and a burst of radiant sunshine outside but there was also a heavy bit of melting snow on the ground. After fluffing my hair, decking my dark blue suit and blondish slash reddish crimson tie on my neck festive for the Hoosiers occasion. Rolling out of bed like a 68-year-old man, sleepy from a long hangout the boys and I enjoyed at a little devilish hole in the wall called “Kilroy’s Bar & Grill,” where we slurped on $1 mini shots and watched another NCAA Tournament in a packer bar as IU won in the First Four against Washington State. We partied and swallowed a fish. Cussing like a sailor until night’s end. It goes to show you why I was waking up late. Since the tournament was starting at the earliest start time of nine a.m., I had taken a shower and vested into my clothing faster than the Energizer bunny would in those commercials. “Whopper, whopper, whopper, whopper, junior, double, triple whopper, flamed grilled taste with perfect toppers I ruled this day,” I hummed to myself in the bathroom while I was dressing into my work clothes because that song stuck in my head for three whole weeks, and I was scrolling through emails on my old school Blackberry. “At B-K, Have it your way! You Rule!” Dawning our typical company sweater vests and high-top yellow and red company beanies, plus a black coat. Before you know it the sheets, boards, and player information that have helped me throughout my time as a young broadcaster, fully printed from the school library and fully colorful like a Jim Carey act in the TV show, In Living Color, were shelved into cream folders into my black computer case that folds like a suitcase. Snow that once pelted on the ground the night before, crunched at my feet like chewing on Kona Ice. My feet as I stepped out of the hotel lobby, felt like a “tap-tap-tap on the glass… waving through a window (sorry I listen to Broadway classics before I go walk down past the hotel lobby, especially during a road game). Then on my way out of the door, I slipped on the pavement, and later a neurologist could call me and say the dreaded words I dreaded. I broke my hip. Headphones flew out of my ears, and even hotel specialists didn’t seem surprised, but my body contorted in the air as Kerrie Shrug flew through the air at the ‘96 Olympics in Atlanta. I mean, it was a hard fall. It felt as if I toppled down six flights of stairs to the delight of my horrors, “Here’s Johnny” from The Shining. I fell hip first and it shattered leaving my papers flying through the air. My boards were ruined, my stuff was ruined, and nothing was sealed so my papers were wet. Even the rays of sunshine and winter-like air couldn’t save me from slipping on black ice, but it did prevent me from my back breaking or something worse happening to me. My day defines a lot of my chaotic life in this toxic radio job at the time. That I didn’t know was toxic, it was a mess.
By Braydyn Lentsabout a year ago in Fiction
College Radio Stations Are In Need of More Respect
On New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2022, a tiny, but strongly independent college radio station out of Ann Arbor, Michigan would send four male sports broadcasters, who cover the University of Michigan Wolverines sporting events for a living, aired the biggest game from the airwaves of Arizona to their dormitories in Michigan, and running through online servers on their social media apps such as YouTube. For these young broadcasters, Adam B., Zach Linfield, Neal Sinha, and Kelin Flynn this would be the biggest game to cover in their young professional careers.
By Braydyn Lentsabout a year ago in Education
