The LateBlooming Gardener, Michael Behen
By: Nadine Sheridan
Inthe hot sun, Micheal Behen works in the garden. Working overtime, hour after hour, day after day, weekends, and weekdays, a tiring schedule indeed. Yet, look closely and you will see something unusual stirred in his motions, his expressions. A light smile fashed on his face, movements flled with intent and rigor. He “took to gardening like a jazz musician,” a friend of Behen described “It became everything” (Behen). However, this gift that has now become so ingrained as part of Behen’s personality, wasn’t always present in his life.
Michael Behen is a man who risked his stable and fnancially supportive career in order to pursue his passion, rather than become imprisoned in a line of work he had no interest in. “53% of American workers don’t fnd their job fulflling most of the time” (Horowitz and Parker). A silent crisis that is affecting over half of Americans. Those who spend the majority of their day forcing themselves to do something they don’t want to do. Many people are paralyzed by the fear of having to give up all of their past experience and credentials in order to pursue a passion. However, Behen’s story shows how feeling fulflled can be worth the hardships and lead to a better, happier life. Behen was able to recognize that the risks of changing your career can lead to a better life and more success. People feel pressure to stay because leaving would mean all their hard work was for nothing. However, the “average age for making a career change is 39” (Douglas), though many people don’t realize it isn’t uncommon to trade your job for a new one.
Making the Switch
One of the hardest things Behen had to do was face the risk of changing his job. He had a stable career in commercial photography. He was
getting paid to do something that he was profcient at. So why leave? Well, he always knew that he was not meant for it.“There were days I thought I’d cry on the train going to work,” he said. Still, changing careers was not an easy choice. Living in San Francisco provided an extra challenge. First, rent was obnoxiously high. Why risk your job when it means risking your rent money, your home. Secondly, there was a lot of pressure to be part of the internet revolution. Behen had a stable job, and he knew trading it would bring about new challenges and most likely more work, but he knew that he had to leave.
“I knew I didn’t like it because I could see other people who loved it.” - Micheal Behen
Micheal Behen grew up in suburban Peekskill, New York. Surrounded by White Oaks and Eastern White Pines, his childhood is flled with fond memories of playing in trees; he enjoyed his time, but never really got into gardening. As an adult he went into landscape photography using flm. This meant more time outside as well as in the woods.
However, his freedom from the rising digital age all changed when he moved to California in 1997. As the digital revolution grew in the heart of Silicon Valley, flm photography became outdated and digital photography became the new norm. Exp nsive housing also meant that he needed a stable job with a better income. It seemed the only thing left for Behen to do was to become a commercial photographer and photo editor for a magazine. “But I hated it,” Behen said. This wasn’t the right job for him, it would never be. But there wasn’t anything else for him to do.
Planting in the Present
Behen fnds much enjoyment in his job designing and maintaining gardens. He has dealt with some tough customers, where they are too specifc about what they want, or too vague. Though dealing with some tough clients, he
A few years later, he began volunteering to restore the Arizona Garden at Stanford. He started looking forward to the weekends because that was the time that he could truly devote himself to gardening. Unexpectedly, another volunteer gave him a job offer, as a gardener. Though he had never been employed in the gardening industry, he was quick to learn the tools of the trade. When the manager of Mandeville Garden Companies was ready to retire, Behen was offered the job. Though it meant less hands-on work and more paperwork, he took the job and is currently working as the boss today.
has found much enjoyment in his day-to-day life. Behen is able to work with people to bring a beautiful garden they had in their mind to life. One of Behen’s workers explained, “he was the one who managed resolving those issues, and I think he did a good job of doing that, just kind of maintaining calm coolness and just kind of ensuring that the customer ended up being satisfed with whatever the situation was” (Smart).
One of the hardest crises he had to face was that of the pandemic. As with many businesses, Micheal wasn’t able to send workers or get new clients during this time. He was able to support his workers though generous clients that continued to pay him. They endured and soon they were able to start up their business again, earlier than most because they would work outside and just made sure to stay apart from others and wear a mask. This was a big relief for everyone. When more restrictions
started lifting and people felt more comfortable interacting with others again, they found even more business though people who wanted their home to be beautiful as they were now spending more time in it. Not to mention, some of their current clients wanted them to come by more often. As a result, business increased.
Today, Behen’s biggest problem is fnding workers in the area as most people looking for jobs around the area are looking for jobs in programming. Since taking on such a high leadership position, the job has been very stressful for him too, but he still enjoys organizing his workers and designing gardens. Originally, he had plans to move back to San Francisco, but the Pandemic hindered his plans. Still, Behen hopes to move back someday. Behen is very glad that he left his old job saying, “as soon as I started gardening, I realized it was worth it and now I realize now after all this time it was worth the sacrifce to do it.”
About the Author
Nadine is an Animation Student at Freestyle Academy. She enjoys drawing birds and hanging out with friends. Outside of school she does Science Olympiad as part of the Mountain View High School team (her favorite events are Forestry and Experimental Design). She also teaches volleyball to kids though volunteering at USYVL, where she has gotten very good at receiving passes by 7 - 8 year olds.