By Arden Berry | Arts & Life Editor
As its title suggests, this fall’s Focus Magazine takes the reader “Journeying Through Life” in 23 pages.
However, this journey would not be possible without its guides: Celina junior Reuben Samuels and Frisco senior Marisa Young, the two Focus editors.
Young said the theme is meant to demonstrate how much someone can learn by listening to another person.
“A lot of our stories ended up being so much richer than we even envisioned them being, just because that’s the reality of the human experience,” Young said. “Everyone has something to give, and if you’re willing to receive it, then there’s a lot to learn there.”
For Samuels and Young, the magazine’s journey began last spring. However, their advisers initially did not like the concept.
“I don’t know, I just continued to feel like there was something there, so I prayed about it,” Samuels said. “And then I was like, I set aside about two hours, really thought, what could this look like? Then thought of different story ideas, thought of different things, and then it fleshed it out a lot more. It made it a lot more tangible for everybody in the room to grasp.”
From there, the two worked on a style guide. Since Samuels had been an editor the previous semester, he wanted to grow from the previous edition’s design.
“So [I] learned a lot from designers and sent some to Marisa, very contemporary designers and what they do and learning from their principles, watching a lot of YouTube videos of what makes good design, what are the rules and needs,” Samuels said.
They also established what kind of stories they wanted, then presented the options to members of The Lariat staff. However, Young said the stories changed over the course of the semester.
“We had a vision, I think, that we tried to impress on all of our writers, but obviously the writers have their own vision for the story,” Young said.
These stories, meant to mirror the life journey, range from a piece on elementary students’ goals titled “When I Grow Up” to one featuring two women reflecting on their lives titled “One Life In One Sentence.”
“There’s a lot of stories that could be seen as mundane, a lot of stories that could be seen as a bit sorrowful, joyful, but in everything, there’s still beauty,” Samuels said. “And really taking the time to not just learn from that but just appreciate it for what it is. Not as the means to an end, but just as an end itself is something that I feel that can only come from listening and truly just learning more and being willing to do that.”
As the introduction to these stories, the cover photo, Young said, is meant to represent different ages, walks and cultures of life.
“The girl in the middle is one of my dear friends that volunteered for this,” Young said. “And then the man on the left is actually a veteran here who owns a barbershop downtown … And then the father and his kids on the right, Reuben actually pulled from a nearby park.”
Overall, Samuels said the process took significant perseverance, effort and creativity, but the job was fun and Young was easy to work with.
“[She’s] so easygoing,” Samuels said. “… I can be very nonchalant, but I don’t always like being nonchalant. I like being bouncing off the walls, but I have to be with someone who’s more nonchalant than my nonchalant … And I feel like it was so much joy because I felt like I could be myself around [her].”
Young said they balanced each other out.
“There would be times when I was so frustrated, and I would just want to crash out, and then Reuben would be playing with a basketball in the corner and he would crack a joke … [he] lightened the mood when it needed to be, and [he] reminded me that the world wasn’t going to end, and I needed that,” Young said. “So I’m really appreciative.”
Focus Magazine is taking a break this semester, meaning there will not be an edition in the spring. However, “Journeying Through Life” is currently on newsstands.
