A bouquet of flowers on her table is more than just a decoration to Jarilyn Walker. When she passes by them, she feels the world around her slow down so she can take in the beauty and the endless arrangement of possibilities available to her. At the same time, she realizes there is beauty in letting them go when it’s time to, much like a hit of her favorite strain of medical flower.
“It was beautiful, and I appreciated it so much while it was here,” she explained. “Same with Cannabis: you’re smoking it, but you can’t hold on to it.”
In addition to finding beauty in her flowers, Jarilyn also seeks joy through the communities she is connected to, both in and outside the Cannabis industry. Moving around a lot when she was younger, she finally settled in Maryland where she tried Cannabis for the first time in high school. Her first experience smoking did not sway her into further use, but as she became more acclimated to its culture at home in Maryland and away at college, she began using Cannabis as a way to mellow out and embraced it as part of her personality.
“I’ve always been whimsical — the hippie friend. Me and the idea of Cannabis really aligned,” she said. “Any adverse moment, [Cannabis] is the Band-Aid. Not a means to escape, but to make it easier to deal with.”
After a period of working retail and odd jobs, along with becoming a mother, she transitioned to a career in digital marketing. Clients easily took to her friendly personality and would open up to her about personal things, she said, which gave her the idea to branch out and begin attending and hosting networking events. After organizing a 420 event, she began experimenting with infusions that inspired her to get her medical card and make the jump into the Cannabis industry.
“Somehow I want to fuse what I’m doing with this and bring great products with great knowledge and true relationship building in the industry,” she said. She became a caregiver and shopped for different medical patients, but her desire to educate led her to seek something more fulfilling. In 2023, she began working at the consumption lounge Ceylon House, and from there, she moved on to work as a budtender and dispensary supervisor.
When she’s not on the clock, she keeps her freelancing career alive through different ventures, including What the Flower, an informative platform she calls her “freelance baby.”
“Any of my knowledge is based on where I’ve worked, being able to hit the ground running, and being given the opportunities to show up and show out,” she said. What the Flower brings attention to many issues, with one focus being social equity, which she says she fights for by simply existing in the space she’s in while refusing to carry a label.
“I want to normalize the look of a Black mom who enjoys Cannabis but also lives a life of faith, who works in the industry and presents it through my lifestyle,” she said, explaining further that the platform shares insight into more common topics, like accessible dispensary locations and communities where patients new and old can interact. “I’m all about curating experiences.”
While she credits budtenders at her local dispensary for passing their knowledge along, her previous restaurant experience and communicating with her children helped her to develop simpler ways of delivering that information to her patients.
“I explain it like a wing chart: super sweet to spicy. The only thing that makes them different is ingredients, i.e. terpenes,” she said. “Not everyone can take in the wording. I’m coming from a place of wanting you to have a clue, even if I wasn’t there to hold your hand through that experience.”
The medical journey her daughter has been on since birth has been another learning experience for Jarilyn: She was born with a hole in her diaphragm, and as the diagnosis progressed, she became a kidney transplant patient. Her medications cause pain in her stomach, so they consulted a doctor who suggested low-dose CBD products and topical cream to relieve the pain. Since trying this, Jarilyn said the flare-ups have decreased.
While caring for her three children and being an active worker in the Cannabis industry, Jarilyn said pairing the two makes sense to her, creating a more balanced picture of who she is and how she presents herself to others, calling herself a “flower-powered mom.”
“Cannabis is a part of my lifestyle, not a facade or anything. It gets me through my day. I’m not just one thing — a canna-toking mom. I show up as a whole woman,” she explained. “A part of me being a woman is being a mom, a consumer and working in the industry. Showing up as that allows others to feel more comfortable to show up as who they fully are.”
With her many responsibilities as a mom and industry worker, Jarilyn has a specific routine she follows, starting with her Bible, a cup of coffee and a pre-roll in the morning. From there, she vapes periodically through the day and takes an edible to unwind in the evening, preferring sativa-leaning strains until it’s time for bed.
Jarilyn said she would love to one day become a seven-figure budtender and eventually
find a position that aligns with her vision of developing industry talent while continuing
to grow her entrepreneurial ventures, like with What the Flower. Wherever she goes, however, she aims to further educate those around her about Cannabis and bring her own deep-rooted level of care to every space she finds herself in.
“I love helping people elevate their relationship with Cannabis,” she said. “So however I can facilitate that and provide for my family at the same time, I’m all about it.”
