COVID helped many students discover new interests. For senior Valeria Cruz this interest was plants. In the past few months, Cruz has created a plant-centered Instagram account in order to express herself and her interests.

“I felt like none of my friends really like plants and I just needed to share my plant photos because I’m proud of my plants growing…it’s really exciting whenever they get a new leaf or they flower,” Cruz said.

Cruz uses Instagram to showcase her several plants, as well as offer advice she could have used when she first began to grow plants.

“I’ve got a lot [of plants]. I have trailing plants like Pathos and Philodendrons. I have succulents and I have cacti. I don’t have that many flowering plants, they’re mainly houseplants,” Cruz said.

Plants are a large part of senior Katie Fredricks’ life as well, and she and Cruz often talk about their plants since discovering their shared interest in sophomore year. For Cruz and Fredricks, plants are just one part of their friendship.

“I mean, in every relationship people meet because they have traits in common with each other. We were becoming good friends for other reasons,” Fredricks said. “We are both competitive in school and we both like the same subjects and we have the same humor. And then we also just coincidentally enjoy plants together.”

However Cruz has already begun planning how to take care of her plants after high school, as she prepares to go to college.

“I’ve definitely got way too many [plants] for my dorm room. Some of them are huge, and I don’t think I could physically fit them in the room. But I kind of also have talked to my future roommates about getting a south facing window so plants have a lot of sunlight,” Cruz said.

Going into the future, Cruz is excited to discover more about caring for plants, and to share those discoveries on her Instagram account.

“[I want to] become the crazy plant lady,”Cruz said.”I just want plants all over my room and kind of create little ecosystems.”