By Hai Lin, South Korea
On the luxurious and dazzling stage, music is hot, lights are changing frequently, and the stars are singing and performing their fascinating dance. The scream and applause of the audience are heard up and down; an interaction of shaking hands with them drives fans terrifically excited.
This is a concert, a world belonging to singers and their fans.
I am a Chinese college student studying in South Korea now. However, when I was in the eighth grade, I had been among those who followed stars.
Following Stars at the Prime of Youth, I Almost Neglected My Study
That year I was sixteen, I was still studying in Mainland China. On one occasion when I heard a pop group’s songs through earphone, I began to love and be crazy about them. I kept updating the posters about them on the wall of my bedroom and on my desktop. I preserved various videos of them in my computer, and when I talked about with my friends, the topics were even always focused on their information such as their birthday, their family background, their successful experience, their company, and their daily activities. I also dreamed to join their company to be their broker one day …
At that time, as soon as I got home from school, I would throw my schoolbag down, open the computer, and focus my attention on watching their variety shows, reality shows, or TV dramas. And I often stayed up finishing watching them until after midnight. Sometimes, when I saw some negative reports and comments lashing out at my idols, I would be burning with anger and leaped to their defense.
I devoted most of my time, energy, mind to following stars that I was indifferent to my study. I often dozed off in class, failed to finish my homework on time, and thus had a decline in school performance. My teachers were disappointed with me and gradually gave less care to me. Soon before the high school entrance examination, my mum hurried home from abroad to accompany me during the examination. After she saw my poor examination result, she wept with sadness. Facing my teachers’ disappointment and my mum’s helplessness, I was very depressed yet still followed stars and couldn’t extricate myself.
Following Stars Crazily, I Became Decadent
While in high school, I was a boarder. I resolved to focus on studying hard. However, it was not long before I returned to my old way and got on with following stars.
The class curriculum in high school was very full and I studied under great pressure. Every week I could only take half a day off. So I would make use of the limited time to download into my cellphone all the videos of my idols to watch the following weekdays. When I was back to school, I would spare the sleeping time to watch them until two or three o’clock at night. Because lights were out at that time and thus the cellphone screen appeared extreme dazzling, I often had sore eyes and kept shedding tears. At times, I was so sleepy with exhaustion, but I remained in the state of excitement, difficult to fall asleep. On the second day, I not only had dark circles under my eyes but also felt dizzy. I could only catch up on my sleep in class.
Whenever I went home at the weekend, once I rose up early I would throw myself into watching the videos of the stars on the computer, without freshening myself up. No matter who exhorted me in my family, I just refused to listen. Seeing me living in decadence they could only shake their heads. They often said helplessly: “Alas! It’s better for her to be naughty as when she was a child. Now she’s simply a good-for-nothing.” “It’s hard to see her sweet face; she could only grin at the screen.” “How come she has less and less human kindness as she grows up?” … Hearing what they said, I just felt self-accusation for a moment, but after that I would go on my own way as if nothing ever happened.
When the college entrance examination was coming, I flicked through the admission scores of all colleges in different provinces, finding the ideal college was far beyond my reach. I lost complete hope for entering college. After the examination, my parents decided to give me a new environment so that I could develop in a correct direction and broaden my horizon as well, so they brought me to South Korea. I had thought that I would stop following stars in a new studying environment. Instead, soon after going to a Korean language institute, I made new friends and learned lots of news about idols and stars. Moreover, South Korea is a small country where it’s not difficult to meet stars because they usually show up in streets, restaurants, and coffee shops. I lived in Seoul and could often go to their concerts or book signings. In order not to miss these activities, I would focus constantly on them either by checking the cellphone on the way or by browsing on the computer at home. In South Korea, I not only didn’t stop following stars, but had a more favorable environment to do it instead.
God’s Words Revealed the True Nature of People Following Stars
Not long after we arrived in South Korea, my mum contacted the church. Thereafter I also started to have gatherings with brothers and sisters in the church. At a gathering, I read this passage of God’s words: “So how does Satan go about corrupting man? First we must take a look in particular at the evil wrought by Satan in the world and among humanity that is visible, that people can feel; … Satan first uses knowledge to corrupt man, and then it uses science to arouse people’s interest in knowledge, science, and mysterious things, or in things people desire to explore; this is to say, Satan uses scientific knowledge to corrupt man. The next things Satan uses to corrupt man are traditional culture and superstition, and following that, it utilizes social trends. These are all things that people come into contact with in their daily lives and these are all connected to things close to people, what they see, what they hear, what they touch and what they experience. One could say that they surround everyone, they are inescapable and inextricable. Mankind has no way to avoid being influenced, infected, controlled, and bound by these things; they are powerless to push them away.”
After reading God’s words and listening to the fellowship of brothers and sisters, I came to know that following stars is equivalent to following social trends and that it is a method for Satan to corrupt people. In other words, Satan uses these trends to tempt, bind, and control us to disturb our normal life, study, and work so that we fall into the trends and have no way to extricate ourselves from them. Thinking back, since I began to follow stars, I’ve gained nothing but the momentary mental pleasure. I lived a lazy life, I neglected my study and lost motivation for it, my school record was on a headlong dive, and I even have no confidence in my prospects. I lived in emptiness and decadence every day and this even disappointed and distressed my teachers and my family. Honestly, I wanted to break free from the degenerate life and resolve to study hard, yet I had no strength to shake it off. Now I clearly see that Satan hides its means to corrupt people in the trends which I believed were justifiable, attempting to let me lose my normal life and bring me under its control. The means of Satan is really despicable. I shouldn’t live under its domain anymore, or else I would become ever more degenerate. At this point, I had the will to change myself.
To Be Continued …
Part Two: The Reason Why I Gave Up Following Stars During My Study in South Korea (II)
