Plantitas of the Year

It has been a year and a half since the destructive pandemic COVID 19 stopped the whole world
figuratively. There were a lot of plans posponed, economies drastically falling, and we even are not able
to do the hobbies we wanted outside. It is obvious to see, that people in today’s world have different
problems facing everyday, whether it is psychological, emotional, or even financial. Since a lot of us have
been locked down; unable to go outside doing trivial things. We tend to think any kind of hobby to just
kill the boredom. What are the things we would like to do during this pandemic to not waste precious
time? Would you spend a lot of your money to have such hobbies? Have you ever thought that a hobby
would make you financial instability become unexpectedly reliable with a hobby?

Filipino people naturally are plant lovers. It is very casual for a filipino household, specifically in their
bakuran to have such ornamental plants. That is why even before the pandemic spread, we have already
been Plantitos and Plantitas all this time. The word plantito/a become popular amidst pandemic after
the trend that a lot of people do cultivate plants, whether they are for ornamental of medicinal
purposes. The idea became famous during the lockdown since a lot of us have been staying at home.
Typically, the concept is actullay for hobbies but Pinoys truly are streetwise. Some of them, including
some educators grabbed this opportunity to make their hobby a business. Truly it helps other people
who lost their job and it is really unexpected to realize that in this business, they earned profit highr
than their salary when they were havibng their jobs!

The concept of plantitos/plantitas is a blessing for those who lost their job in the pandemic. Besides, it is
said that planting helps people during the pandemic to be emotionally and phychologically calm. It is
totally stressful to see the situation during this pandemic, but the hobby of planting become an outlet
for us to relieve our strees and mange our financial freedom as well. Social media becomes the bridge
for everyone of us and initiating the trends to help our kababayans to think of anything as source of
income now. Even the celebrities became fans of this hobby and taking it to the next level. They
invested millions of pesos because they were serious in treating it as an official business. For instance,
Aubrey Miles has already bought a property just by selling unique plants. Since plants for today is totally
different than in typical old days of our nanays wherein our kapitbahay simply ask that they will get a
plant for free in the backyard, some plants sold today worths a thousand to million pesos.

Undoubtedly, planting as a hobby is totally a golden opportunity for the people who are wise enough to
use the trends in the middle of the pandemic. At the same time, this shows that we Filipinos, even in the
dakrest time of our lives do not quit in fighting for the family to give what they need. Filipinos are very
resilient, we are streetwise. We grabbed opportunity to enrich what we have and develop our sense of
courage to survive this time of crises.