(AOA Yuna)
By Anna
I am a huge KPop fan. I have been in the fandom for 4 years. One of the first songs I heard was ‘I Feel Good’ by EXID. It immediately caught my attention. I was in awe of the colorful clothes, the dancing, the vocals, the rapping, the styles, – everything.
One day, I showed one of my friends one of the KPop music videos I liked. Even though it wasn’t her style, she supported me for liking music of another language. I was very happy that day. She was the only friend I have ever told about KPop. I only ended up telling couple of my other friends about it in 7th grade.
In the 8th grade, I had to make a presentation about something that I enjoyed doing, which was converting KPop songs into an English version. I was very proud to show people the music that I liked. When I played it, the whole class burst out in laughter. In panic, I looked over to my teacher, and saw that she had a small smirk on her face. I could tell that he was resisting the urge to laugh. The image of what happened that is still very clear in my mind up to this day, and I still get hurt by it. I tried to hold back my tears as I continued on with the presentation. When I was done, all I heard was mean comments. I didn’t understand why they were so judging of my interests. Because of what happened that day, I never dared to speak of KPop outside of home. I was scared that I would get ridiculed in front of everyone again if I did.
By the time I got to high school, I started to feel more comfortable with having different interests. I stopped caring about what people thought and decided to be honest about listening to KPop. I now have a best friend who likes the same music. Getting into the fandom was worth it.
Don’t let people put you down for your interests. They’re not you. If you enjoy music of another language that you don’t understand, be proud of it. You’re more exposed to other cultures, and more aware of other languages. And who knows? You might even end up learning a whole new language! Don’t let people tell you what to like. Be proud of yourself. You’re unique.