Musementor Turku / Varsinais-Suomi
Kaisa Kukkonen
What do you value in life / in the world?
New perspectives and wild ideas, the courage to say yes and try things out, or to give people and new experiences a chance. Respecting others and maintaining a joyfully curious openness — whether it’s about people, animals, or nature. Getting excited and having insights / inspiring excitement and insight in others. Freedom and psychological safety. The joy of doing things together.
What does success mean to you?
Living a life that aligns with your own values.
What motivates you daily, in work or life?
Positive vibes and solving problems — alone or together. A sense of action and visible results. Love.
What is the most important thing you’ve learned through your work?
That work isn’t everything, but unemployment can be tough on self-esteem. The importance of a good boss <3 and the destructive power of a bad one. And sometimes, the best chance to shine comes outside your actual job, or just slightly off to the side.
The best book you’ve read recently?
Your favorite quote or saying?
Kirja: Marcus Aureliuksen Meditations
”Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.”
(Source: This idea has been attributed to many different people.)
The most surprising thing people learn about you when they get to know you better?
Even though I’ve lived in 11 countries across different continents, the most exotic place I’ve ever lived in is definitely Lappeenranta.
Which themes have been close to your heart lately?
Health, friends, family, good food, summer, and the beauty of midsummer roses <3
Why do you want to be a musementor?
As a kid, I was jealous when my best friend got a fancy pink Barbie house for Christmas. I never got one myself, but together with her and other friends, we ended up building a five-story Barbie house out of cardboard boxes, with furniture made from milk cartons, yogurt cups, and Jacky Makupala containers.
For some reason, that memory came back to me when I heard Antti talk about musementoring — and from that, a concept for musementoring started forming in my mind. It’s built around crafting new physical realities, dreams, and metaphors from “junk” found at home, so we can start building our future (life) stories together. And maybe through this, I’ll find the right kind of wonderfully weird people to play and experiment with — boldly trying something completely new, with no guarantees of success XD.
Also, I became a mother this summer, so my own identity is going through a big shift. It’s nice to occasionally leave the baby with the grandparents and step out of the baby bubble to play with other adults.
Describe in three words what kind of musementor you would be?
Scary to the safety-seekers and “we’ve always done it this way” types, encouraging to sensitive “different” young people, too rational for the emotional types and too emotional for the rational ones — in other words, just like me.
