How A Marigold Flower Saved Me from a Mental Breakdown

After losing his dad at the age of 10 due to a brain aneurysm, Alfred did whatever he could financially to help his mom. She worked cleaning offices and waitressing jobs. Alfred began working at the age of 11, selling a weekly local newspaper to commuters catching trains on their way to work. After doing this job for two years, he moved up to working at a local fast-food restaurant as a cook, janitor, and cashier. As Alfred started high school, he also worked as a janitor for a community center while continuing his fast-food career.

However, toward the middle of his high school tenure, Alfred tried to upgrade his resume by applying for an office position to improve his chances of getting accepted into College. The transition was challenging since these positions required a different skill set. Not surprisingly, Alfred received a stream of rejection letters. A quick meeting with a guidance counselor yielded the suggestion that he should improve his typing skills.

It is no secret that Alfred reached an emotionally low point as he began to question his previous employment choices. Unfortunately, he also understood that those choices were also the only ones available to him at the time. So how could he get accepted to a college willing to gamble on him and offer him financial aid? This issue kept Alfred awake at night and in a depressed state.

To turn things around, Alfred scheduled a longer formal meeting with his guidance counselor. At that meeting, he told Ms. Stewart that he was ready to revolutionize his life! He knew a game-changing strategy was essential.

Ms. Stewart raised her eyebrows and told Alfred that this was one of her best days ever because I had allowed her to do her job. Alfred was perplexed because he felt he had reached a low, and his counselor was telling him that she had reached the zenith of her career. There was in his mind some level of disconnect here.

Still, Alfred listened intently as Ms. Stewart lowered her reading glasses and said, “to get hired, you must always portray yourself as a Marigold Flower to all your targeted office employers." Alfred quickly interjected and said, "With all due respect, Ms. Stewart, growing up in a public housing project, I have never seen, let alone tried to grow one of these flowers,” he said.

Ms. Steward smiled and said, “That is why you have not been hired and will continue to receive rejections from your targeted employers unless you completely disrupt your approach!” she said in a vastly elevated voice. His eyes lit up as he said, “I’m game!"

Ms. Stewart also released an effervescent smile and began to describe the attributes of her favorite botanical blossom. “The beautiful Marigold Flower is humble but confident. It stands out in a garden because it emits a distinctive scent that identifies its presence even before a person can see it. It is a versatile flower that can accomplish many tasks simultaneously when planted in a garden. It serves as an excellent rabbit repellent as the strong scent discourages rabbits from entering and destroying a garden. The aroma of the flower also attracts bees which allows for faster pollination of the rest of your plantings,” she said.

Alfred listened intently and said, “I now see how acting like a Marigold Flower will help in teamwork activities but what does this magical flower do for a person in an individual setting?”

“Oh yes, that is how this flower earns its reputation. This flower can be served in salads and create a tasty meal. Its petals can be boiled in hot water and make a tasteful serving of tea. And if you need to feed a chicken coop, you can gather a bunch of these flowers with bees inside of them and soak them in soapy water and offer them as a nourishing meal to your chicken coop residents, Ms. Stewart proudly said.

“In short, you must work tirelessly to build your resume with skills that will allow you to stand out to your future employer, convince him that you can work well in a team environment, and be able to use what you gain from those settings to go back to your desk and get the job done. Additionally, like the Marigold Flower, you must be ready to offer skills that give you a unique ability to accomplish various tasks even without assistance from anyone,” said Ms. Stewart.

“Once you can prove you are as good or better than a Marigold Flower, you will get hired,” she confidently said. Six months later, Alfred made the final cut and was selected to be a high-school intern at the Internal Revenue Service. It was a pivotal moment in his life that allowed him to realize that it is always darkest before the sun rises!