Fandom Love Letters-Dear Bangtan

Team EnVi is excited to introduce one of our latest columns, Fandom Love Letters. As the name suggests, this series allows fans from any fandom the opportunity to share their love and admiration for their idols through means of writing. We at EnVi are fans of various artists, so we understand how impactful idols can be in our lives. We also understand how important it is to have a safe space for ourselves and our writing, whether or not they’re personal pieces. Through this, we hope to foster a positive community for fans worldwide. For today’s feature, Julia talks about her heartwarming journey with BTS and how they’ve changed her life.

Dear Bangtan,

I was 16 when you first came into my life. It was my last year in high school, the last weeks actually, and you sang your way into my heart and soul. You helped me get through that period when big changes were happening in my life. For years I wouldn’t spend a day without listening to you, watching your videos, or just singing your songs, absentmindedly, to myself. Despite having been into K-pop for two years prior to our first introduction, you were the one that made me want to learn more and aim higher when it came to understanding Korean culture. You opened my mind to a whole new world that I never expected to fall in love with. I was 19 when I started moving away from K-pop and from you; I still don’t know why, I guess I just had too much going on back then. I still kept watching you from afar, never forgetting how important you were to me. Still, I let my interest be swept away in the sea of confusion and heartbreak I was braving at the time.  I was 21 when I came back to you, or you came back to me? Perhaps, we met halfway, and I got the chance to fall in love with you all over again. You had changed and so had I. Slightly more mature and open to the idea of self-love for the first time in a long time, I could relate and absorb the message in your lyrics again. I started getting to know you again, and the more I learned about this new you, more peaceful and mature in your own right, the more I became fascinated with your surroundings again. As my interest for your culture resurrected, so did my passion for learning new things. Again, I was diving into your world with no intention of stopping.  I am 23–almost 24–and I am so grateful for you. I am becoming the woman I’ve always wanted to be, and you’ve been a witness of this transformation since I was a teenager. Perhaps more than a witness. I realize your presence, near or far, has helped me in more ways than you could possibly know. The world we live in is a mess, it is despairing at times and chaotic at best, but your presence has helped me in each step of the way, since the moment we met, in one way or another. Loving you has opened my eyes–and my heart and soul–to so much more; I love writing, I became a journalist, fell for more idols, groups, and artists (whatever you want to call them), expanded my horizons, learned new things, made more friends, met different people,  crave new challenges and set new goals every day. I realize some might wonder what those things have to do with you, but that’s for me to know, I don’t think I would ever be able to explain it fully.  Thank you for walking into my life, thank you for being here, thank you for being you… and thank you for not giving up on me. After 8 years since our first encounter, I have not much else to say, except two little words… Love,  Julia If you’d like to submit your own love letter, click here. Love BTS? Check out our coverage of ARMY surprising Jin for his birthday here!