True happiness

By: Alysiana Perez

I have loved Kpop since I was in 6th grade, it made me so happy and I never cared what people used to think of me for listening to it. Or at least I didn’t care for a certain amount of time. I never thought that people’s opinions would bother me about a topic I loved, but at some point their thoughts started to matter.

Once I got into 7th grade it all changed. As Kpop became more popular, more people knew about it, and more negative opinions were made as a way to show people their hatred for it to be “cool”.

Me being a really hard stan of Kpop knew i’d be a target for anyone who knew about me liking the genre of music. I’d try and try so hard not to listen to what they thought and just continue listening to the music letting it fill me with happiness.

Overtime though if you liked Kpop you were considered weird and an outsider. I really didn’t wanna feel like an outsider since 7th grade was difficult and people would call you out and tease you for it. Eventually with all the negative comments and wanting to feel like I fit in with everyone, I slowly stopped listening to Kpop in hopes everyone would think of me like them.

Eventually people forgot I listened to Kpop from me not mentioning or even discussing the topic ever since I wanted to fit in with everyone else. This was a mistake though, it didn’t make me happy. I’d be so happy to listen to Kpop songs, it made me feel so alive and it brought more energy and such good happy vibes to me than typical songs people who didn’t like Kpop would listen to.

It took me a while to realize the decision I made, and once I did I got back into the music without a doubt. This time I wouldn’t care what others thought about it or of me when I began listening to it again. Just by comments and stares people would give me, I let it affect me and take away something that made me so happy just to fit in.

When I would be in the car with my dad and suddenly a smile would appear, he didn’t understand why but I knew why. The reason behind a mysterious smile, just from the cause of a song playing that “I didn’t even understand because it’s in a different language.

It was comments like that, that had pushed me further to want to fit in with everyone else. Never again do I want to listen to what negative comments people have on something that makes me truly happy.

After overcoming the way those comments made me feel about liking something, I've now become proud of what I listen to. I no longer feel ashamed or even embarrassed like I used to, I’m proud and I express that I do listen to Kpop and don’t have a care in the world about it.

Some of my favorite artists are Blackpink, Ateez, and Stray kids which follows up with some of my favorite songs Pretty Savage, Wonderland, THANXX, and Gods menu.

For the warrior times, I am Alysiana Perez.