Practicing my nightly TikTok scroll as I lay in my dorm bed, I paused at a performance of Run Away by TXT at MAMA, one of their first at an end-of-the-year award ceremony. Besides being one of my favorite songs and choreographies of theirs, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia and marvel at their growth over the past six years. What I hadn’t expected was the attached compilation featuring clips of multiple groups tearing up over the performance, drawn to the song’s meaning. I found myself drifting back to my thirteen year old self first discovering TXT, unraveling similar emotions. I became a MOA shortly after TXT debuted. I had just joined middle school after moving back to Hawaii from Bangladesh, where I had been living for the past two years. Change wasn’t something I dealt with easily. So, the change in environment, starting at a new school, and expectation of high school instilled a feeling of impending doom. I didn’t know who I wanted to be and thus pushed against the “growing up” everyone else was so eager about. TXT knew just how to capture those emotions through their work. I was especially drawn to them when Run Away was released. Besides enticing fantastical elements, that idea of running away from the present into a world of forever perfectly expressed what I had been feeling. These five boys were singing about emotions I thought made me strange, and with them came so many other fans (and idols such as during MAMA) who felt the same. That was a connection I hadn’t felt with other groups. TXT’s work integrated a sense of hope. As they evolved throughout their music, from boys who wanted to escape the reality of growing up to embracing change, I found myself carrying the same sentiments. Even if I wanted to drown in the dread that came as I entered eighth grade and then high school, seeing their growth inspired me to keep going too. This shift in mindset brought my focus to self-discovery– finding who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do in life. I found a passion in biology, especially genetics and lab work. Throughout high school, I explored biology/experiment-based courses and my love for it grew stronger. As I got closer to college, I was dead-set on making this my future. Five years prior, I couldn’t stomach the thought of growing older, but now, I was eagerly planning my future growth. The attached photo is of my best friend and mine’s matching TXT photocards during our last hangout before going off to college. We met in middle school, shared similar sentiments towards growing up, and bonded over our love for TXT’s expression of our emotions. This picture is yet another showcase of our growth together alongside TXT. Today, I’m a sophomore at USC studying Molecular Biology. I’d like to obtain a PhD in genetics research, specifically in relation to the expression of diseases. Having grown up as a lower class daughter of immigrant parents, I’m no stranger to the inequalities present throughout the systems most responsible for helping their communities. This is not the system I want to contribute to. I will use my knowledge to contribute to research that will especially help those in marginalized communities who are provided with less resources by healthcare systems. I intend to pay for my studies through scholarships and working as I study to reduce the burden on my family. Today, I’m the same age as Yeonjun when TXT first debuted. I, however, have had the virtue of having TXT motivating me for the past six years of my journey. Just as they first spoke to me by sharing the fear of growing up, today they sing about looking to the future and finding purpose. A purpose which I’ve found. Something I can do to fulfill my dreams while helping communities who matter to me. I’m motivated to go even further because in the end, we’ll continue growing together. So, as I pursue my dreams alongside TXT, I will continue to striving for this purpose and growing— as TXT calls it in Run Away – ‘the magic named "us."’