BTS' concert in Seoul today for their Love Yourself: Speak Yourself The Final Tour marks the end of the Love Yourself era. Despite joining the BTS ARMY during the end of the Wings era, the Love Yourself series — from Her to Answer — was really when I watched them grow and, in turn, grew with them. A lot of ARMY say this, so much so that it's really become cliché at this point, but BTS has given me hope in today's youth and, with that, some kind of purpose in life. So cheesy, right? A lot of people chalk them up to simply this: "The biggest boy band in the world." They think, "Oh, you just like them 'cause they're pretty and they can sing and dance." They are, of course, all of these things. What they can't understand is how a 32-year-old woman who doesn't speak Korean has become so obsessed with a K-pop group. I tell them that I am not a K-pop fan. I am a BTS fan. And there is a big difference. Because these men have shown me the importance of perseverance, work ethic, passion, mental strength, standing up for your rights, loving yourself, kindness, and positivity. They've shown me that music transcends races, genders, and languages, and can unite people of all backgrounds. And these are things that I have only found with BTS, and no one else.
For the last decade, I solely focused on work and my career and getting promoted, and there wasn't anything I was truly passionate about outside of that. But I found BTS at a time when work was becoming nothing more than a grind and the makeup world was become overly saturated and stale, and they gave me something to look forward to, something to find passion in, something to stand up for. And these are the same reasons that tens of millions of other people have found solace in BTS. Funny how seven boys from South Korea with the humblest beginnings can change the world, no? And with that, I say a fond farewell to the Love Yourself era, an era that really broke barriers, changed how people view Asians in music, and helped BTS break pretty much every record in the music industry and set it on fire.
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