Why I like the term «busy-bee» 🐝

Touching upon odd equations, meaning of work and how empathy will save us all.

Chayotes in Paris, 2023

I have always been a very active and engaged person. As a little kiddo, my afterschool programme was packed! Monday was piano lessons, Tuesday swimming practice, Wednesday clay modelling classes, Thursday, again swimming practice, Friday choir practice and on the weekends I had concerts, swimming championships or some other social activities (like Vietnamese-family-clan-vibes gatherings).
You might think my parents pushed me, but it really wasn’t the case – if I’d had my way, I would have had handball or soccer practice on top of my already full schedule. (Thank god I was a smart kid, I couldn’t be bothered to study. I kept my grades despite my full schedule.)

Looking back I’m grateful for the many opportunities to bathe in my interests and be busy with stuff I loved and adored. Especially, considering my parents, who hadn’t had the chance to enjoy all these activities during their childhoods. I think, it is usually a deep need of parents, wanting to fulfill their kids wishes and dreams, no?
Especially with migrant parents, this goes deep. I don’t think my parents had the priviliges to even dream about these kind of things, there were more existential worries during their childhoods. All the more, that migrant parents want their kids to have all these experiences. And most of all: education!
Because education means knowledge, knowledge means job opportunities, and job opportunities means safety. The one thing that drives thousands of people away from their home, sometimes under very dangerous circumstances, all in search for the same thing, trying their luck, wanting only one thing: to be safe.
(Imagine my parents’ reaction when I told them I wanna become an artist. But more on that another time maybe. 😉) Anyway, why I even started with this was not to deepdive into migration family behaviours and destinies, but more about how I figured out my own persona in being a busy bee and what that brought along for me.