It may come as no shock to most of you that the rise and spread of COVID-19 have caused many students to stress out. From being forced to move out of their dorms and apartments located on-campus to having all of their classes online, students everywhere, including myself, have been drowning in isolation, work, stress, and boredom.
There are so many solutions to all of the above. Feel isolated? Call, text, or video chat with your friends. Have a lot of work? Set up a tentative work schedule so that you don’t have to finish it at the last minute and add to the next problem: stress. Feel stressed? Meditation, stretching, exercising, and writing have all shown that they are powerful stress relievers. What about boredom, though? We have heard it all. Keep yourself distracted. Read more books. Watch this show. Listen to music. Take a walk. Tik Tok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Tumblr might look appealing for a while until even they bore you.
One thing that I have found increasingly rewarding and distracting throughout the years that is underrated is gardening. Every evening, I take a stroll around my plants to see their growth and water them. Every new leaf, flower, and branch that sprouts fill me with peace and joy that I helped this plant grow. Typically, my father and I stick to gardening fruit trees and flowers; however, COVID-19 showed us that vegetables are so important (and surprisingly easy to grow). After going to the grocery store and seeing absolutely no potatoes or carrots, my father and I decided to start our own vegetable garden.
One of the most surprising things about some vegetables is that you can grow them from fully grown vegetables! It might sound confusing, but, for example, if you want to grow a carrot, and you have a carrot in the fridge, you can grow another carrot by using the top of a carrot and setting it in a dish with water. Similarly, you can grow an avocado tree by placing a seed with strategically inserted toothpicks over some water. Have a potato that is already starting to sprout? You can use that potato to grow another potato (or a few more potatoes).
Individual vegetables tend to grow faster than vegetable trees like tomatoes and avocados, but now is the best time to start growing all different produce types at home. Aside from the stress-relieving properties that gardening brings, it can also help people adopt sustainable gardening practices.
Aside from all of these things, gardening is super cool. Imagine cooking a homemade meal for you and your loved ones and telling them that all of the produce used in your recipe is coming from your very own garden. Not only does it save you money, but it gives you some bragging rights in my book.