STAY JOURNAL
Stay Story Wall
How Stray Kids helped Stay
I met Stray Kids when I had lost someone very precious to me. I was in a dark place and they just came to make my life better, brighter. It's not even because I'm being cheesy. It's the truth. Just like that, I found myself smiling more, wanting to do things for myself and also for them. With their songs and their words, they give me motivation everyday but they also allow me to have bad days, to be sad because that's a part of life, and as someone with anxiety, it's so important, like they validate everything I feel. "Do things at your pace" "It's okay if everything you do today is breathe" "It's important to share your feelings" That's what I get from them, and I love them so much for that and many more reasons. They are my safe place, where I can be myself, where I can find peace and support.
-Giselle
I'm a kpop fan since 2005 but there is no other group that saved me the way Stray Kids did. So I used to be very sick. Having a weak body, I used to go to hospital a lot. One day, I got tired of going to the hospital so I tried to entertain myself, I opened the YouTube and the first video to appear was Stray Kids' District 9 MV. I watched it, got impressed, watched the survival, started watching their content and guess what? I've never got sick since that day so I was like : "They changed my life, They saved me" and I promised to STAY forever. I promised myself to go ALL IN for them because if it wasn't for them, probably I wouldn't be here
-Stay
A year ago, I had no self-confidence. Since I met them, they made me boost my self-confidence. When I have problems, it is towards their music, their lives and their videos that I turn and I feel better. it's as if they were with me and motivating me. take care of yourself
I just want to thank them for everything they do for me, for us. They literally changed my life for the better. They are my yellow people. A yellow person is a person who saved you. I don't know what I would do without them. They came into my life and I don't want them to come out. I am so grateful to them. They deserve the whole world. Take care of yourself. STAY loves you and will always love you, Stray Kids!
- melimelo
Stray Kids came into my life at the right time, just when everything was falling apart for me.
It all started four years ago, when with my cousin I was watching the debut of the guys that soon would become my home. I didn't follow them since that day, I didn't have much interest in following artists. after that day I didn't know more about them as a band although I kept listening to them. I only knew about some of them. They came up in the youtube suggestions or from time to time I saw their vlives, until a year ago, in youtube I saw the video of miroh, and instantly I knew it was them. From there I was more aware of everything, but I didn't follow them right away because there was a member on hiatus and I didn't want to stan them while he was away. finally, in august 2021 I found out that they would have a comeback and I decided to follow them. It was the best decision I ever made.
At that time I was not having good days, I felt tired and out of place. I was very sad and confused, my relationship with my parents was difficult and I had a lot of emotional instability. with stray kids everything started to get better, because with them I found a great escape from reality, with their songs they gave me energy and in some of them I felt like they could hug me through the music and lyrics. they became my angels and my home; the peace they gave me is incredible. and even when I feel lost, in them I manage to find a reason and a light to guide me. they are all I need now to go on. They are the ones who give me strength and make me feel more than anyone. I have managed to get along with myself, I have accepted myself more, and all because they make me feel loved from a great distance and that absolutely nothing is wrong with me, they have helped me understand that. I keep trying because they gave me that motivation to not give up, I am grateful for that.
I love them, I love them for every smile they have brought out of me, for those tears I have come to shed for their kind words, for their sweet messages and some pretty randoms in bubble, for their songs, for their voices and personalities, for their smiles. I love each and every one of them, I love them with every part of me.
-Alegría
My Promise to STAY
By: CharityC1007
Trigger Warning: Suicide, Depression
At the end of 2019 I was hospitalized for attempted suicide, afterwards I was released and sent home to face the guilt about what I did to my family & to deal with the reality I was mentally ill during the beginning of Covid. I was fighting severe depression while being quarantined watching the world look like it was facing an apocalypse. I tried to fight so hard for months doing everything the doctors said to do but I was losing my battle and I couldn't find it in me to keep fighting anymore so I was planning to succeed the next time.
At the end of June 2020, I was planning things again and I was determined to succeed this time, wanting to wait till after the upcoming holiday weekend so I didn’t ruin my family’s holiday. It’s obvious now that a part of me was holding on begging the universe to give me a sign, to give me hope that one day the pain would end. On July 1st I was mindlessly scrolling through TikTok looking for recommendations for a new Kdrama to watch while I was waiting and I saw a clip of Felix’s killing part from God’s Menu and said to myself “that’s not his real voice!?”, I was intrigued. I went to YouTube to look it up and after a few hours of diving into SKZ content I learned about these 8 Kids that made me genuinely smile for the 1st time in months. For those few hours I wasn’t planning for the first time in months to hurt myself.
Before falling asleep I came across the clip of Chan saying on Vlive “don’t hurt yourself”, the world around me stopped and I started crying because something inside of me broke completely. My husband & son had said this to me countless times but it never affected me like Chan saying it. I fell asleep that night asking if this was the sign of hope I had been praying for and told myself if Stray Kids & their content helped me get through one more day without planning then I wouldn’t hurt myself that day and give it a little more time.
After a few days of making that promise each night I realized a week had gone by and I began to have hope. Whatever broke in me that day was the last piece of darkness I was holding onto and because it was shattered the light was finally able to get through after so long. Chan & the Kids did that for me.They became my light & hope, their lyrics gave a voice to everything in my heart that I didn’t realize I needed to acknowledge.
Then I learned about what fandoms were and I learned that Stray Kids Fandom was called STAY and why. I made a promise that day that I would STAY for them in the hopes that one day I could learn to STAY for other reasons. Over time I realized I was healing because they gave me so much inspiration to find my passion for life again. If these Kids could go through everything they did and not only still be so loving & happy but thrive in life with gratitude then maybe I could too. I started participating in my own life again, I lost 60 pounds, I finished remodeling my house, I was laughing & I was excited again, I started to be a wife & mother again, I started to find peace.
Now almost 2 years later, I still fall asleep every night with the promise in my heart to STAY for Stray Kids but now I also promise to STAY, in every sense of the word, for STAYs. I promise to STAY for my Husband & my son but most importantly over time I finally learned to STAY for myself.
People say Stray Kids come into your life when you need them the most and for me that’s exactly what happened. I never needed a sign from the universe to live & fight more than I did at that time. From the moment I saw that TikTok of Felix to now I firmly believe Stray Kids saved my life, they saved me from my darkest time, they saved me from pulling the trigger, they gave my husband back his wife & my son back his mother but most importantly they gave me hope & inspiration to live and fight for what I love and still do everyday.
The love and gratitude I have for these 8 Kids who have no idea I even exist are not strong enough words to describe how I feel towards them and what they have done for me. So I strive every day to give them just a small piece of what they have given me in the hopes that one day I make a difference in someone’s life the way they did for me.
STAY is more than my fandom name; it’s a promise that saved my life!
Trigger Warning: Self-harm
I finished my senior secondary school last year and it wasn't an easy ride, basically one of the most frustrating years of school life. I hadn't been performing very well in all of my subjects and as a student who was considered "bright" it made it hard to cope. A lot of pressure erupted from my subject teachers, my class teacher and MYSELF because I told myself that I was failing people who were expecting a lot from me. The whole pressure led to self-harm to try and ease the inner turmoil I was feeling, depression and extreme self loathing. This may seem petty but for a kid who's always been expected to be the best in everything, it was hard on my part. Around February or March, YouTube recommended God's Menu to me ( I didn't know KPOP btw) and after sometime I decided to check it out and it was the best decision I've ever made. I liked the song on the very first listen and I listened to it only for a very long time then started researching about Stray Kids, their names and ages, watched their funny video compilations, guides on YouTube and discovered more of their music. Soon enough, they were my escape from the fight within me, a song, a funny video, a performance was all it took to brighten my day and reduce the burden on my shoulders...I felt relieved, I felt like I had someone who understood what I was really going through. VOICES became that song I needed after receiving an earful of harsh criticism from the teachers and myself, BLUEPRINT is my happy song, there's songs for any situation. These 8 guys came and saved me from myself and I know a lot of people say this and I know we say this front the depth of our hearts because we really mean it. I consider myself extremely lucky every day for finding stray kids and Stays, it's like the universe knew what I needed at that time. So many artists, so many opinions, so many influences by our friends and all that and at this rate we all know how Stray Kids and Stays are viewed by other people on different social media platforms. So, I'm glad that I wasn't influenced by anyone and decided to listen to what I wanted and that even after a few rough patches I've gone through as a Stay since last year I decided to embark on this journey with Stray Kids. I wish them the very best in life and I'm happy that I'll get to see them grow and continue doing what they love with each other. TILL THE LAST STEP OUT AND BEYOND❤️❤️ - Rachel
I became a stay in June / July 2020 but I've known them and I've listened and loved their music since 2019 but I was not yet a stay. It was a friend of mine who sent me miroh and Levanter. I barely knew kpop so I asked her to advise me some songs. And since I really liked Levanter, I started downloading the songs from SKZ (without watching the mv) but I knew Chan Felix and Minho. I really like their music because i identify with it and thanks to Stray Kids, I feel much less alone. They are like my family.
- Akane
Why I Stay: Happy 4 th Anniversary, Stray Kids
By Galfilly
Stray Kids crashed into my life with the rumbling boom that was “Thunderous” the month after NOEASY dropped, and in my 7 months as a baby STAY, they have shown me a storm of vulnerability, musical experimentation, and passion for the art of creative storytelling. So many have said that Stray Kids come into their lives when needed the most. That too, rings true forme. Like the harbinger of change that they are for the K-pop industry, so too are they for me, as Stray Kids now represents a seismic shift in my life.
My chosen vocation is live entertainment- storytelling through the medium of human
experience. The ephemerality of live shows means constant real-time adaptation. The beauty of creating a moment in time that won’t ever exist again is something I thought I had perhaps lost because of the pandemic. Stray Kids found me when it seemed I wouldn’t ever create these moments again, after 15 years of doing so. The pandemic took away from me the same thing that it did for the members themselves - the ability to give stories to the world.
The honesty, meaning, and vulnerability I find in each lyric, arrangement, composition, and performance has reminded me why storytelling is my passion. The music made and performed by Stray Kids instills within me the determination to rebuild myself after the devastation wrought by Hurricane COVID. The winds of change have begun to blow in my life, and Stray Kids are the thunderous ones ushering in the fresh rains that are sweeping through me. And for that, I’ll stay with them forever.
I met Stray Kids at a time when I was very stuck in life and was in one of my longest depressive episodes. They turned up in my explore pages after watching other groups for choreography inspiration. This was about September 2021, around the time of NOEASY comeback, and I had to know more about the group stating they were "the thunderous ones". There was something in Stray Kids' music that I immediately clicked with. And the more I looked into their music, the harder I fell. Their music cleverly displays their passion and drive, and their performances add to their chaotic energy and charisma. The members are all such lovely people, that it's hard not to smile while watching them. It is so incredible to see a group of people a similar age to myself achieve such a level of sophistication and finesse with their art.
Stray Kids quickly became the sound track to my everyday life. Their energy is infectious and gave me the ability to help achieve things I thought I could never do while in the midst of a depressive episode. COVID hit right after I finished getting my honours degree and interrupted my future plans. I got stuck in a job I didn't want to be in for 18 months to support myself and entered a depressive episode that I couldn't find a way out of. But Stray Kids came along and gave me energy and hope. I was able to apply for a career path opportunity and got accepted. I'm now pursuing my PhD and am moving forward and up, with the help of Stray Kids. They are still always the soundtrack to my day. It's insane to think one group of people was able to help me like this with their music, charisma and charm. But they did. So to Stray Kids, thank you, Kia Ora, tēnā koutou.
-Elaina