Dynamic Vol. 3: Direction

Direction

Dynamic, Vol.3, Spring 2024, Bryant Junior High School

Editors note For the theme Direction, we wanted submissions that would reveal the direction some might have already reached, and want to express it, or the direction someone is trying to go. We wanted submissions that show the uniqueness and variety that everyone has and how they can use it. Everyone has a direction they take, and we want to bring light to the hardships but in the end, contentment, everyone’s path holds. Enjoy!

Bella Luper, Editor-In-Chief

While figuring out the theme for

wood around the book. For “Direction”,

this year’s literary magazine, we came

we were going to go for peaceful colors,

up with many ideas over the course of

similar to “Shipwreck”. Our mindsets

a week. Shipwreck, Direction, Fork in

while thinking on how to pursue this

the road, Highway, Although, Rise Up,

were, ‘How would I feel on an airplane’.

Inside Out, Sincerely Me, Growing, Dear

After some discussion for 3 days, we

Future Me, Message In a bottle. It took

decided on “Direction” I am so happy

us about 2 days to break down some of

on how this Literary Magazine came out,

our options. Our main 2 that we agreed

and I am extremely proud of the staff that

on were “Shipwreck” and “Direction”.

worked on this!.

With “Shipwreck”, we were going to go with peaceful and a lot of blues indicating Rylee Solomon the water, and having little pieces of

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Editor-In-Chief

Table of contets 04-05: Sway, Alexis Holley Swan lake, Amery Felton 06-07: Bullet: Anabelle Tappe 08-09: Grief, Lexie Metheny Autumn Falling, Sophia Burton 10-11: I am from, Alyssa Andrews

24-25: Some Will, Brenden Murdock - Moving Forward, Brayden Johnson 26-27: Blue, Miles Cheatham 28-29: Society, by Alexis Holley - Into folklore, Aislyn Martin

12-13: Sunset on the beach, Adison Richards 14-15: Loss of my life, Emily Carden 16-17: My Nana, Braycee Whisenhunt March’s Child, Tehya Hinkson 18-19: I believed, Lexie Metheny 20-21: My Name, Ashton Schafer - Peaceful Waters, Adison Richards 22-23: Search Bar, Sophia Burton

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Sway She Like a flower Starts as a seed But blooms into something more No matter the weather Through thick and through thin She sways in the wind So cut her down And throw her away But she will always grow back Better than before that day

By Alexis Holley

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Swan lake

By Amery Felton

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Bullet My feelings grow stronger each day But I just watch you walk away I’ve looked at you a million times But now it feels like a crime When you catch me staring You seem so caring Then you go and dump me After I give you my hearts key It’s like a bullet to the heart And I just let you hit restart No matter how you beat me down I’ll always keep you around You’re stuck in my head Cause losing you’s the only thing I dread I can’t get over you No matter what I do So I’m locking myself up And hoping I don’t erupt When I’m sad I don’t let anyone know I won’t let my feelings show I just wish they’d disappear So I won’t have to fear All the things that could go wrong Make me seem so strong Cause I just push through All the pain I feel for you

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It’s like a bullet to the heart And I just let you hit restart No matter how you beat me down I’ll always keep you around You’re stuck in my head Cause losing you’s the only thing I dread I can’t get over you No matter what I do So I’m locking myself up And hoping I don’t erupt The way you held my hand And messed with my head I thought you had plans Or at least meant what you said It’s like a bullet to the heart And I just let you hit restart No matter how you beat me down I’ll always keep you around You’re stuck in my head Cause losing you’s the only thing I dread I can’t get over you No matter what I do So I’m locking myself up And hoping I don’t erupt It’s like a bullet

By Anabelle Tappe

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Grief Grief is like a summer thunderstorm the rain is like tears, the sadness lightning is the anger, thunder the result The rain comes in stops and start, pelting the earth one moment and slowly pattering down the next The lightning can be small, barely noticeable, or it can be bright and bold and so eye catching you could see it from inside a house The thunder can scream, scream itself hoarse, demand your attention, or it can be quiet, angry whispers just for the earth to hear But like every storm, it will come and it will pass, leaving only bare traces behind that melt away under the sun and the earth is better for it, the grief eroding away until next time

By Lexie Metheny

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Autumn falling

By Sophia Burton

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I am from I am from the softball fields And long practices on hot Saturday nights The dusty fields and the cold grass And the cold benches in the dugout that always made me cold I am from the softball fields From my mom yelling “We got to go or we’ll be late” To long after-game talks I’m from pitching lessons every now and then To games twice a week I am from the softball fields I watch as I hold the ball up to start a pitch And think of how if I pitch badly, we lose the game tied game, next score wins, as the bases are loaded Wondering if I walk her or strike her out I am from the softball fields From the sweat and tears are rolling down my face I can feel he grainy dirt on my hands as I pick the ball up off the ground The feeling of stress and anger All the emotions running through my head

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I am from the softball fields From the taste of the thirst quenching Gatorade To the amazing ballpark hot dogs From the pre-game warm-ups To the delicious after-game ice cream I am from the softball fields from the smell of sweaty players To the smell of fresh hamburgers being grilled from the freshly mowed grass To the dusty field I am from the softball fields From the physical and mental pain To the happiness and joy of playing such a wonderful sport

By Alyssa Andrews

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Sunset on the beach

By Adison Richards

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Loss of my life Trigger Warning: Metaphorical Violence

Sometimes I wonder if it hurts you like it broke me You sit there on the other end of the screen and throw everything away I wonder if you saw how much your words made me bleed My brain craved to know if I had been the problem, That maybe my heart belonged in an insane asylum I watched as you laughed with your other friends, trying not to show my pain, wondering if you leaving had been for our gain I wanted to know if I was at fault, or if it was yours; the one who put the gun to my heart The words “you’re losing me” left my lips a plethora of times, But you ignored all my warning signs Words that we’d whispered late in the nights creeped into my mind, yet now, they all took on different meanings The strained “I love you” and the easy “goodbye” suddenly it seemed that all your love was a lie I yearn to know if it was ever true, did you ever love me like I loved you?

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The sunshine to my midnight rain, yet your absence brought waves of pain Pain I hadn’t been prepared for, but on it came, my heart infected like a gross disease I told myself it wouldn’t just be a high school love, but now we cannot be in the same room without a barrier between us Thoughts wander in my mind thinking that maybe one day I’ll get back my best friend The one who was beside me when my mother left, the one I swore I’d love till my dying breath But never has that goal seemed so impossible, as I read the note that made my roaring pain docile Closure is a powerful thing, one I got with great struggle, Yet until we talk again my heart will always whisper how you were the loss of my life

By Emily Carden

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My Nana I am from fun, relief, and happiness From my grandma’s house I am from my grandma And she’s not grandma, to me, she’s Nana In the country, flower beds on the ground below the front porch I am from the sound of my grandma’s tv and the neighbors kids yelling outside And feeling safe and at home I am from always eating chocolate pie and drinking lemonade And smelling her tropical blossom spray I am from church every sunday then starbucks after and the pool outside in the summertime I am from Nana’s house that is just home

By Braycee Whisenhunt

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March’s child

By Tehya Hinkson

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I believed when the only piece of solid land in a world crumbling apart shatters, all hope is lost i believed in true love once it was a naive dream having someone who would look at all your flaws, look at the broken mess of a person you were and still accept and love you i believed it because that’s what i saw my mom and dad divorced when i was young, so young i never remembered them together my mom and stepdad fought constantly, the threat of divorce looming for a decade before the dam broke and it fell apart as my mom attempts to move on before the process is done, i turn to latch onto my dad and stepmom they’d been together for almost eleven years, they loved each other they never screamed, rarely argued, were always so caring and loving and seemed perfect i idolized their relationship then one day, they sat me down they were starting counseling because they talked about divorce they wanted to try tho, try for them, try for me, and they wanted me to be involved so i could see what it was like to fight for someone you loved

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and things were hard, but they began to look up i come back, excited to spend time with a family that was whole, leaving broken pieces behind for a while, when we had another sit down and my whole world shattered they decided that they would be getting a divorce she wasn’t as happy as she could be, and he didn’t want her to just settle and to see two people who loved each other so truly, so deeply, so wholly, break apart after so long because it just couldn’t work hurt and my hopes of finding a love like theirs disappeared like mist in the sun because if they couldn’t make it work, if they couldn’t stay, then how would that ever happen for me so no, i don’t believe in true love, i don’t believe in soulmates i let that naivety fester too long, but it washed away too fast

By Lexie Metheny

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My Name My name. Why couldn’t it be a simple name like John or Gene.

Why did it have to be unique like Maroon? Something laid back but still unique, like Maroon. Maroon is a simple color but still, as I said, “unique.” Instead I know only one other person that has the same name as me. John or Gene are my dad and my grandpas names. I was going to have the name Gene, but instead it had to be about the kids my mom nannied.

My dad went a different route. With him wanting to name me Gene, or as a better name Luke. Why you may ask Luke, he was a nerd and liked Star Wars. It was either Luke or Lukaus. Why did my name have to be what it was?

My brother did not have a name like that. He instead had the name Gavin, I don’t think they even tried with his name. My name is Ashton, and no if you were to ask, I was not named after Ashton Kutcher. That would’ve been a better thing to tell people. Just a little bit of trivia for nights when we watched “Open Season” or “That 70’s Show.” How am I going to have trivia after two kids who are well into their twenties?

Well if i did go through the painstaking process of getting my name changed, would i still like my new name like Luke and John. Yes it’s still on the table.

By Ashton Schafer

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Peaceful Waters

By Adison Richards

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Search Bar Trigger Warning: Reference to suicidal thoughts

I begged myself time and time again To overdose on melatonin Because maybe then, I won’t wake up But according to google, I’ll probably just sleep in.

I looked up way to many times How to draw blood while using a knife And even then it didn’t actually work Then I wake up the next morning, and it’s all a blur I have easy access to cigarettes But I can’t seem to want to be like my parents Because I can’t breathe when they smoke And google says that’s a painful way to go I’ve played through thousands of situations in my head With AI chat bots on the internet And every time I ask if I should die The bot begs me not to end my life

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I know there is help Google tells me that way to much And I’ve called the number a few times It never helped me save my life No matter how far the internet advances, The search bar will never replace my friends So instead of dying today I guess I’ll go to sleep instead

By Sophia Burton

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Some will Every athlete will always have memories of when sports started to get real They remember when they get their first real shot, whether it was in high school or their first time in college Maybe even as a professional Even if it was good or bad, they will always remember that moment This is when you figure out it won’t get easier Some might quit, some might succeed Some of them you knew from the start they couldn’t do it Some you would have thought they could take it But really they crumble right when it gets hard But the small percentage will succeed When you go longer in the world of sports you will see less and less competitors But the ones that do stick around get better and better But where do I fall I think I can succeed better than the ones that you see or hear on social media

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By Brenden Murdock

Moving foward

By Brayden Johnson

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Blue I hate change I’m meant to change for survival, for myself but instead I change for you I choose too You tell me what colors to be and I change with every command I’m as green as the grass you walk on Almost blending in or I’m as red as the love I have for you Never ending within you say you wanna see blue I can’t blue isn’t a color I’m capable of becoming at least not without help from you though I still try to be blue on my own but with every attempt, I end up back where I started disappointing you I try to hide the fact I can’t be the color you want I try to show you what other cool colors I can be but you want blue and I’m not blue so you’re not happy

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i’m scared if I can’t be blue you’ll leave so I continue to try and be you say being blue would be better for me it’s for my own good you say you care for me but the truth is you won’t care until I am blue I can only repeat myself I can’t be blue without you but you say you can’t help it won’t do any good so you watched me destroy myself all for you though at the end of the day you still want blue I try to be understanding I really do I understand you can’t help but you can’t understand I’m not blue

By Miles Cheatham

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Society Society Their judging eyes like stone Staring into my soul Success You either brag to much or brag to little You are lit Like a lightbulb to realize Success is the only way to be seen Society Where you’re to smart or to dumb Where you’re judged by the color of your skin No one truly understands one another Wandering lost in their own little world This is society

By Alexis Holley

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Into folklore

By Aislyn Martin

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Colophon The 2024 Spring Direction issue of Dynamic is the third volume at Bryant Junior High School, Arkansas.

The magazine was created in InDesign. There were three main departments on our staff; Literacy, Visual Arts, and Publicity.

The staff had rubrics that they used and filled out for each piece submitted, and turned them into the editors of their department.

Editors would look over each piece and their staff members rubric to decide what would be showcased in the magazine.

Helvetica Now, Petit Formal Script, and Adelle Sans Devanag were the three fonts that were used. Titles were done in Petit Formal Script, and page numbers and trigger warnings used Adelle Sans Devanag. While copy, captions, etc. were done in Helvetica Neue.

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Colors were chosen and tinkered with on coolors.com and spread out in this issue.

Dynamic is an award-winning staff, earning multiple awards including Best of ASPA at the 2023 Arkansas Scholastic Press Association convention. At the 2024 Arkansas Scholastic Press Association convention Dynamic earned Superior and Best of ASPA in Design, Superior and Best of ASPA in Cover Design, and Excellent in Thematic Development.

The Dynamic Staff

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