It used to be a pet peeve of mine whenever someone greeted “Good morning!” even if it was already dark outside. It felt like an autopilot realtor version of that meme-worthy Pinoy host habit — “Ayaaan… Alrightttt!” — the universal filler used to break the ice at every event, even when no one’s really ready to start. I’d quietly roll my eyes and think, There goes Filipino time again—our national tendency to bend hours, arrive late, and treat schedules as suggestions. I saw it as another example of how we fail to honor time.

But when I entered the real estate industry, I realized it wasn’t carelessness. It was culture—specifically, sales culture, and deeper still, Filipino optimism. In real estate offices, call centers, and showrooms, “Good morning” isn’t about the clock. It’s about energy—the idea that every call, every client, every opportunity is a new start.

Then I came across the word “morgen.” In old German, it means morning—but it also refers to a unit of land. Centuries ago, a morgen measured how much land a man and his ox could plow before noon. It wasn’t just time—it was output, a way to measure what you could accomplish within a morning’s worth of effort.

And suddenly, it made sense.

When Filipinos say “Good morning!” all day, we aren’t ignoring time—we’re claiming it. We’re saying “This moment is still productive, still full of potential.” Like that farmer measuring his field by how much he could till before the sun rose too high, we measure our days not by the clock, but by the work, connection, and progress we can make.

So now, when someone greets me “Good morning!” at 9 p.m., I smile. Maybe time isn’t something we lose track of—it’s something we stretch, until the work feels complete.