Love Yourself Speak Yourself Tour: The Final 💜

BTS Official

'Together, We Will Love Ourselves More'

by

Shufei Chen

The Love Yourself tour started on the 25th August 2018 and The Love Yourself: Speak Yourself Tour started on the 4th May 2019. and throughout these two tours, the Love Yourself era lived on. But coming to a close on the 29th October 2019, the era in which we started to understand the meaning of self-love, in turn, gradually came to an end. The final three concerts were held in South Korea at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul and it’s safe to say the feeling was bittersweet.

Throughout the three days, three different banners were released, with three different messages. But sincerity all the same.

From ARMY to BTS:

Day One: “Because We Are Together, Our Values Shine” - Together no matter what comes in our way, we’ll continue to believe in what we believe in. No-one can stop us.

Day Two: “Let’s Not Let Go of Each Other’s Hands, We Are Each Other’s Support” - Through all the waves, hardships, heartbreaks and tears, if we are together, if we hold hands and stay together, we’ll make it through it all.

Day Three: “Every Language That Makes You Who You Are Is Paradise” - No matter who you are, what you believe in, what you speak, we’ll together stand by you because you are one of a kind.

The messages hold stories not just meanings. Each person holding a banner showing it to BTS during the final concerts, each holds a different story, a different meaning, though the overall meaning together means the same.

But this time, it was just not ARMY who wanted to tell BTS a story. The tables flipped and BTS surprised ARMY with their own ‘BTS TIME’, telling ARMY their story, their message.

From BTS to ARMY:

Day One: “Our Beginning and End is Always You” - Thanks to you we exist but we also thank you for following us through it all until the end.

Day Two: “Don’t Worry, We’re Already Each Other’s Support” - Together we support each other, sometimes without even realising it.

Day Three: “ARMY are the Stars Embroidered Across the BTS Galaxy” - Our galaxy is made up of you. Without you we wouldn’t have a story, or a galaxy to live in.

These messages show what BTS have always wanted ARMY to know and what they hold dearly to their hearts. They’re not words or phrases, they’re the thoughts and feelings of these seven boys.

But throughout the three days, although there were laughs, smiles and jokes, the feeling of sadness did not go amiss. For many people, the Love Yourself era helped them through some of the toughest times in their lives, it helped them understand and accept themselves. It helped people in different ways but touched them all the same and to let that go, to close that chapter, would be difficult.

That feeling however wasn’t just felt by ARMY.

In fact, for BTS, this era helped them all the same. They learned to grow, to love, to be happy but most of all to accept themselves for who they really are. Not just as RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, Jungkook of BTS but as Kim Namjoon, Kim Seokjin, Min Yoongi, Jung Hoseok, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung, Jeon Jungkook. They learned how to love themselves as themselves.

For ARMY, we learned to embrace every part of ourselves, or begin to. We learned that the process though long and daunting, would at the end make it valuable. The journey to finding yourself, loving yourself, and being yourself is long but the rewards make it worthwhile. I think that’s why the end of this era seems to hit harder than the end of other eras. With this era, BTS and ARMY, together, learned, hurt, but most importantly loved.

The ending ments told us that. Though not explicitly all the time, the implicit meaning showed us how much happier they are, how much better they are doing, but most importantly, it showed us who they are.

So, on the final day, the feeling is bittersweet. Enjoying a BTS concert but at the same time knowing that after the next few hours, this chapter closes. That’s when we forget. Forget that everything comes to an end. But an end doesn’t mean it’s over. An end gives us a new beginning - something that Yoongi pointed out. Namjoon reminds us that although Love Yourself ends after the concert, the journey that we started won’t end. We’ll still continue down the path to loving ourselves.

Together. That’s the key. The key we need to gain strength, bravery, and fight. Together. That’s how we’ll do it. That’s how we’ll end the Love Yourself era and how we’ll start a new era.

And together we’ll hold hands and walk to continue to love ourselves.

“I Love You, More Than Yesterday, But Less Than I’ll Love You Tomorrow”