Hi everyone! It’s me, Beth, the human personification of @coton_jidi on Instagram. Last semester, my only frames of reference for human life were: 1) my roommate, and 2) nihilistic kids on TikTok. Fortunately, I stumbled across one special dog’s Instagram account and he saved me. I now visit his Instagram page and check in on him every single day. I wish this was a joke, but I can assure you that it is not.
Please pray to our lord and saviour, Coton Jidi. I don’t know what his real name is, because I can’t read Korean and he is a Korean dog with an account manager who writes his posts for him exclusively in Korean. Google Translate doesn’t cut it for non-Romance languages, so despite my dedicated efforts, I have no idea what they are trying to convey on this account. I am going to call him Coton Jidi, for brevity’s sake.
The following list ranks my favourite photos of Coton Jidi and why they are important to me.
1) Earnest smile: Jidi, why is your face so earnest? You make me want to cry. I love this photo because this is exactly how I look when I’m waiting on my roommate/parents to make me dinner. I am very short (5’3) and so is Coton Jidi (he is probably shorter than me).
It also makes me terribly sad for some reason. His face evokes a terrible yearning in my chest and sometimes it’s more than I can bear. I think it’s because I make the same facial expression when I want something. I love him.
2) “Coming out of my cage and I’m doing just fine”: Little did The Killers know when they wrote that song that it’d become deeply relatable in the year 2020. Here, Jidi looks caged–that’s because he is. We all are in quarantine and will be for a long time. But we are also all good boys who must do everything we can to help others, just like Jidi. Thank you for inspiring me to be a better person, Jidi.
3) Lady-in-waiting: The other day I sent this picture to my family group chat because they’d forgotten to pick me up. His face echoed my feelings of attentiveness. So, I sat on the floor, chugged coffee, and scrolled through Jidi’s Instagram at warp speed. My hands were shaking from the caffeine. But my heart? My heart was warm with this fluffy, white puffball of a dog in my life.
4) God, I wish that were me: I would give (almost) ANYTHING to have Coton Jidi step on me. Look at how happy he is! He looks a little tired, but that’s because he works so hard to be a good boy. Being a good boy ain’t easy, but it’s honest work. I’m sure that’s what Jidi thinks when he goes about his Instagram influencer daily routine. He is so quirky and good!!
