(Technically, the holiday’s almost over… but I’m counting it because I’m still on break XD) Happy Year of the Rabbit, everyone! I hope you’ve all been having a good start to 2023, wherever you are~
Read more: Happy (Lunar) New Year!So… it happened again. When I moved to Seoul last year, I ended up taking a mini-hiatus that – despite my best intentions – eventually turned into a full-blown one. In terms of “life getting in the way,” there were two main reasons for this. The first was that I spent the first few months of my new job filling in for coworkers who got COVID-19, and then everything just snowballed from there. (Case in point: This post was actually supposed to go up January 1st, but it got delayed because the holidays made things very busy at work.) The other reason was that my best friend also moved to the area, and I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. Fast-paced hagwon life + more socializing = not much time for blogging.
Perhaps more importantly, my relationship with K-pop has changed over the past year. To be honest, 2022 was not really one of my top years for K-pop music. As we all know, there were several great debuts and rookie releases that took the community by storm – me included. But when it came to my favorites, there were a lot more “likes” than “loves.” I know I won’t have the same level of interest in each and every comeback, and I know there are bound to be times when I’m not really feeling something. But recently, it’s been like that with most of the groups that I like. I found that 2022 had lots of good music, but not much that made a lasting impression – at least, compared to previous years. So on top of being busy, I didn’t feel all that inspired to write. (Insert obligatory disclaimer that all of this is my own personal opinion.)
Finally, I just consume K-pop differently these days compared to back when I started this blog. in 2017, I didn’t live in Korea or have a job. I used K-pop writing as a way to pass the time, share my interest, and find like-minded friends. Even when I moved to Busan and became active again in 2020 and 2021, I was using the blog as a way to keep connected to K-pop through the pandemic. But now that I live in Seoul, K-pop is pretty much everywhere. A lot of my friends and coworkers also like it to some extent, so it’s easy to find people to talk with and share experiences. I still buy albums and go to events and concerts (SO MANY CONCERTS), but I’m definitely not online as much as I used to be.
That being said, I still want to keep Katherine Does K-pop going. Even if the situation is different now, it’s my passion project and I’m not keen on giving it up. Over the past few months, I’ve thought a LOT about what I can do with my blog in 2023. And to be honest, I still haven’t come up with the perfect answer. Right now, my plan is to find some happy medium between the two modes I tend to be on: writing all day every day or on a complete hiatus ^^”’ I would honestly be happy to get out a few posts a month. I can’t promise I’ll be here every day or even every week, but I’ll try my best to provide regular content going forward.
As always, thanks to all of the followers and the readers who are still here after all this time. Your patience really means a lot. I already have some posts planned and halfway-written, so please look forward to them in the coming weeks!
Love always,
Katherine ❤
IMAGE SOURCE: ITZY’s official Twitter / You can see the original tweet here
Katherine Does K-POP 