AN: Dear Readers: The End of 2020

2020. We are finally at the end of this year and my goodness… what can I say? I don’t think anyone here expected 2020 to turn out like this.

Firstly, to anyone who has lost their loved ones this year from Covid or other causes – I am so so sorry. No amount of words can convey my deepest condolences. Place your right hand on your left shoulder, and your left hand on your right shoulder and squeeze yourself tightly – Imagine that I am giving you the biggest and tightest hug.

For anyone that has suffered, or had their love ones suffer physically and/or financially from Covid or other causes. I too give you a big hug and thank God/Allah/The Universe/ Lady Luck/Whoever-you-believe-in that you and your friends and family are alive. I wish for you and your love ones who have been affected a speedy and full physical and/or financial recovery.

To our front line workers. You guys are literally angels. Thank you for doing this and showing up to work every day no matter how tired and exhausted you are. Thank you for carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. Thank you for fighting for every life. Words cannot express my gratitude and I wish I could do more than just sending you a big virtual hug. I hope you can continue to absorb strength and energy from others and continue to safely and healthily push through these tough times.

To everyone else who has been lucky to get through this year with minimal physical and financial damage. I give you a huge big hug and thank God/Allah/The Universe/ Lady Luck/Whoever-you-believe-in that you are okay. I hope you continue to remain safe and well in the new year.

And now… about mental health. I daresay that this is applicable to every person reading this (including myself). To say that 2020 was challenging on our mental health is an understatement. And as I really discovered… a poor mental health can lead to a person acting the way that he/she would normally not react.

I hope that if we are confronted with people acting aggressively, angrily or irrationally, we can find the strength to treat them with kindness, understanding and patience – just like how we would like others to treat us if we were caught up in emotions of fear, helplessness or bottled-up stress and trauma.

I hope that everyone’s mental health is okay and that it gets better in 2021. If your mental health isn’t great, please (as BTS said) speak yourself. Please please find help and please reach out. Please take a break from the world if you need to, and please don’t ever feel like you need to apologise for being inactive. (But please do let your close friends know that you’re taking a break – just so they know you’re alive!)

Because of the many many shitty things in the world right now and because of the way we are wired to focus on the bad things, it is more important than ever for us to look for the good things that happened or are happening.

I really encourage everyone to reflect back on this year about the good things that have happened.

For example, two amazing things came out of 2020 for me:

First was of course BTS. Due to quarantine, I started watching Run BTS and honestly, I never laughed so hard in my life!! And because I couldn’t go anywhere… for the first time in my life I actually bothered to sit down and read the lyrics carefully and study their discography. I remember vividly that week when I first sat down and immersed myself into the lyrics, letting its beauty and emotions just wash over me. Falling in love with BTS and then their lyrics slowly led me to Namjin Home and then to the birth of my blog.

The second and best thing that came out of 2020 was you. My readers and new BTS friends that I’ve met along this journey. Never in a million years would I have ever thought I would be blogging about BTS lyrics and making so many new friends! 2019-me would have laughed her head off if someone told her that this would happen! BTS? Seriously, who are they?! Puh-leeassee, I’m into Trance. K-pop?! No thank you!

Anyway, thank you thank you thank you for inspiring me and motivating me to write my blog. Thank you for all the links, for your comments (sorry by the way, I realised that my comments box hasn’t been working for a week! I just fixed it!), for sharing my blog with others, for lending me a listening ear and supporting me in every way.

Special shout out to Laila, Ahreum, Karen, DP, Nic, Vel, Judith, Caji, Angela and Di for being my rock and support. I love you guys and I hope that one day we can meet in person and attend a BTS concert! Thank you as well Ahreum for helping me to review lyrics and helping me to decide which translated lyrics best express the Korean meaning.

An extra extra special shout out to Namjin Home for inspiring all of this. Namjin Home – I hope you’re safe and well and that we will hear from you soon.

Lastly, before I end this, I would like to gently remind all of us (especially myself!) that there are many huge global issues right now that seem too impossible to solve. Climate change, LGBTIQ+ rights, systematic racism, gender inequality, etc. It is easy to feel like we have no power to influence any change. I mean… what can one individual do? Right?

Well, BTS is made up of 7 sincere hard-working individuals who give their best every day to produce amazing art; and ARMY is made up of millions of individuals who spent hours streaming, tweeting, creating compilation videos, setting up charity funds and initiatives, and teaching baby ARMYs to appreciate BTS’ work.

All of these actions from individuals helped BTS, against all odds, achieve their many successes and helped ARMY develop into a strong and formidable fandom. BTS and ARMY didn’t just influence, BTS and ARMY created change.

And so I remind us all that in all these global issues, we all have a choice – To be part of the problem or be part of the solution.

BE the solution. BE kind. BE generous.

BE like BTS.

Have a wonderful and safe 2021 everyone. With all my love and peonies, G