Farewell

Kpop...

...kpop...

...kpop.

It has been a long and lovely road. I remember long ago, downloading songs from these new Jpop artists Hikaru Utada, Ayumi Hamasaki, and Mflo. On the same server I came across some tracks with new sorts of characters and a group called SES. I liked their music and some other music like it. "Oh My Love (Cyber Soul mix)" was my jam for a long time, and when I found videos of them I was entranced by how pretty they were, especially Eugene.

Yes dear, anything you want.

Technology and globalization was rather limited back then, so I kept a loose interest while focusing on other types of music, and unrelated became friends with some Koreans, which led to friendships with more Koreans for several years. Eventually, I saw Hyuna and she caught my interest, so I began watching Invincible Youth (some of the greatest television of all time) and got sucked right into the Kpop scene full force. It was a beautiful time for kpop, and having fallen for Hyomin on the show, I took a particular interest in T-ara.

This interest took me to a certain T-ara site, and there I decided to hang around in the chat room and became acquainted with some others, including those whom would go on to start this blog as a rebellion against the insanity of fangirls that we often contested with, and I joined very soon after. Ever since, kpop has been a true delight for me. I won't say it saved my life, but through some of the roughest times in my life, it must have saved my sanity with its unrelenting positivity and celebration of what makes us human. Surely, it is a much needed medicine for the high-pressure education system and many mind-numbing jobs throughout Korea.

Yet while I have continued to love kpop, my capacity to continue following it very closely and staying involved in the scene to know where everyone is at and make meaningful commentary has fallen off. I'm old now, I'm building a new life in a place far away from anything I ever knew, I'm learning Spanish, and I hope to be taking on much more than I have going on presently. It seems it is time to leave this scene to the hip kids who can properly keep up with it and the prolific non-kids like Kpopalypse who have an astonishing capacity for writing and found a way to make it work with their life.

Well, I don't want to drag this out too far. Goodbye my darlings.