My dear readers,
Our journey has finally come to an end today now that we’ve analysed the last song of the Love Yourself albums.
I can’t believe that it was only a year and a half ago when I tripped and fell down a rabbit hole and found myself in a magical wonderland.
This wonderland was the BTS x ARMY fandom, a whole new world with its own set of cultures, etiquettes and history. Every day was filled with excitement, countless parties and lively chitter-chatter. Everywhere and every day I saw ARMYs working hard and enthusiastically streaming, sharing and creating music, content, artwork, fanfics, and charity programs aimed at making the world a better place. It was truly the most magical place in the world.
I also saw the most surreal things that I have never seen before: A pied piper leading a crowd of locals, an ugly monster locked up in a sandcastle with beautiful blue flowers surrounding its lair, a friendly local hero with a face made of bread, and a calico cat that seemed to appear whenever it thought I needed guidance. In the galaxy above the bustling fandom where the sea and desert met, two moons shone in the sky.
Seeing how beautiful, unique and fun the fandom was, I decided to stay. Almost immediately I was swept into all of the activities, easter egg hunts, and parties (how could I resist? The energy of the locals is just contagious!). I participated in everything enthusiastically, joining group chats, forums, streaming parties, creating/retweeting/contributing to Twitter threads, reading articles, fanfics, interviews, and watching as many videos as I could.
And then when I found the pattern, I remember the excitement, overwhelming anticipation and apprehension. Am I seeing something? Am I not? Have I gone mad? Only time would tell I suppose if I get halfway and it stops connecting naturally.
Thus, I started this blog. To me, (laughably to many of you I’m sure), starting this blog is the most out of character and craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life.
And I’m so grateful and thankful that today I was able to finish the last piece of the puzzle with you and place it neatly into its frame. The picture is complete.
But… this means that it is time for me to leave this wonderland and return home.
Please do not misunderstand. Leaving the fandom and all its wonderful activities does not mean I will stop loving BTS and ARMY. True love, as we saw in the lyrics, does not simply stop because you are not physically there.
To give you some context, my pre-BTS life is not too dissimilar to one of a Hobbit. I am of the quiet folk (short too… hmph!) and never really had any interest to be a part of big adventures and activities. I never engaged or kept up to date with this much content, and I never participated in forums, discussions, streaming parties, etc… I did all of this for the first time that day when I embarked on my unexpected journey down the rabbit hole.
The BTS x ARMY fandom was truly an unfamiliar terrain for me. Being an incredibly slow writer, trying to keep on top of everything while writing my blog and juggling my working life has tired and overwhelmed my introverted spirit. I dearly miss the quietness of my old life (with minimal social media and lots of nature walks) where the most exciting thought of the day is what I will be having for tea.
I will still continue to enjoy the beautiful music BTS has given to us (and will hopefully continue to give us!), and I may pop in and out of the hustle and bustle of the fandom from time to time in the quietest of manners just to see what is going on.
But I will not be active anymore.
Thus, I will provide the passwords at the end of the post and I expect that the discord server, like flowers that were once in bloom, will soon whiter and fade away. If that happens and you’re looking for a new discord server to call home, I would recommend joining this server as it was started by a reader of mine Sibby who many of you may know from TikTok. Also, if you’re looking for more analysis of earlier songs about Namjin, I recommend that you check out this blog. It is a wonderful blog written by two of my readers Ophelia and Sus 😊.
So my dear readers, farewell and from the bottom of my heart: Thank you, thank you… thank you.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for supporting me, for being my friend, for patiently showing me how to use Twitter, for patiently showing me how to use discord, for patiently explaining Weverse to me, for all of the chats, for sharing my blog with others, for organising activities for me, for helping me with my blog, for sharing with me useful articles and links, for your energy, joy and love, and for simply being by my side. I cannot thank you enough.
It has been an incredible and humbling journey and experience for me and I won’t ever forget the kindness and warmth you have shown me. Please continue to stay safe, well and happy!!
I truly hope that you have enjoyed reading what I’ve observed and that you are now able to enjoy that extra bit of meaning in BTS’ beautiful lyrics 😊
I may return, I may not, but this blog will live on (so spam me if all gets revealed!). Perhaps you may like to subscribe to my blog below or follow me on Twitter, that way you will get a notification if I ever do come back with another post!
Maybe one day inspiration will strike and I will feel quite ready to pick up the pen for another adventure (Mono perhaps?). If or when that day comes, down the rabbit hole will I free fall again.
With all my love,
💜 지나가
penicillin, 27/12/2015, penicillin1, paradise