So let this post be my obligatory 7th year anniversary exclamation because I still can't believe I'm lasting this long in the Korean pop fandom. I know I'm nowhere near fading away from the world of pretty boys and catchy music (that I'll rightfully admit I don't understand the lyrics to unless I search them up and find adequate English translations) so here's to more years to come! And more pretty boys!!
To start this post, I would like to quote myself from two years back when I also did one of these to celebrate my 5 years in the kpop fandom. It's been two years since then but what I'd written still hits home: "The Korean music industry has served as much of a therapy as it is a source of entertainment to me. Through ups and downs, personal struggles, family problems, and other kinds of emotional bullshit - Kpop has kept me grounded and is one of the main reasons why I’m kind of happy and living and breathing right now. At the risk of sounding cheesy but my love for Korean music and the culture itself runs deeper than anything else outside the boundaries of family and friendship (because family and friends will always be #1). I need it to breathe and I need it to live." (if you want to read the rest of the post, just click here)
I'll admit, being a kpop fan for this long has not been a walk through the park. I've had my fair share of being ridiculed for liking something that doesn't exactly fit the definition of norm here in the country I live in but I think hearing people insult the groups that I love hurt more than the jokes I had to endure. I know better than to take them as personal attacks but when I'm passionate about something and it gets treated with contempt, I get easily riled up. I usually keep my annoyance to myself though, letting go of unwanted emotions because I know not everybody feels and thinks the same way that I do.
