RAMBLINGS OF THE MIND
She asked herself so many times and found no answers.
She was born on the first week of spring, and as a "diploid," her whole 45-day life had already been laid out before her. In fact, when she was still 5 days old, Lil'Bee, a senior worker bee, was assigned to train Stripes and prepare her for her job as a worker bee.
Lil'Bee was little, but what she lacked in physical form she compensated with her vocal impropriety. And compensate she did. She shouted everything that she said. She had been especially assigned by the Queen Bee who heard that there was a special bee with an IQ higher that any bee in the beehive (including the Queen Bee). And Lil'Bee took all her assignments seriously, especially those assigned by the Queen Bee herself. Nobody disobeyed QB.
Afternoon, on that day, Lil'Bee called Stripes for an evaluation meeting. With her folder, she walked around the training cell like a doctor on her hospital rounds. But unlike a doctor, this little terror was shouting every item of the evaluation report to her.
"What is your buzzing problem? When you were buzzing 2 days old, you were supposed to be cleaning cells, starting with the one you were born in. What the buzz? This report shows that you were reading books. What is your buzzing problem, girl?" Lil'Bee was genuinely confused. She had never seen a bee reading before. But there was never a bee before like Stripes.
"In the last two buzzing days, your specific assignment was to feed older stupid larvae. This report showed you were found reading them stories about a 'Colony Collapse Disorder' or CCD. What the buzz is CCD?" Lil'Bee could hardly pronounce the words, much less understand what they meant.
"So, like, that is a problem that we all are facing right now. And if not properly resolved, we will, like, cease to exist," Stripes was about to give her the whole thesis on CCD, when Lil'Bee interrupter her with a roar that can be heard around the whole colony.
"Whaaaaat?"
Stripes went to bed that night wondering whether bees live only for 6 weeks during summer because of bees like Lil'Bee. More questions came, lesser answers arrived.
Should we be as determined as Lil'Bee in preforming our jobs? Is it enough to finish what we are supposed to do? If it is, would that define our happiness, to fulful our purpose in life? Are we not allowed to be the best that we can be? Or even better than the best, perhaps? Why are we given intelligence that allowed us to see the bigger picture, and yet, be expected to just do what we are supposed to do?
So many questions, so little time, so few answers.
Then, Stripes had wondered why she was not that excited about going to her first collection trip. Her thoughts were all about the colony, but not as a worker bee, but somebody whose concern was for the existence of the colony, which she found was about to collapse. Her studies on CCD had been promptly disregarded by the Quenn's Inncer Circle (QEC). The QEC had emailed her back politely saying that the official decision was to defer until further evidence can be presented, that CCD indeed was eminent, or that it even existed.
For days, she kept to herself that dream of doing something great for the colony. It was exactly 7 days after that encounter with Lil'Bee when the hope of fulfilling her dreams was again revived. While she was performing undertaker duties and carrying food, Stripes met Joe'Bee, the most handsome drone she had ever met. He had eyes bigger that anything she had seen before.
