After coming home from CL’19 I really did want to scream how proud I felt being a part of a family of all you, a part of something greater than myself, from the mountain tops. I want to start out by saying that human connection is one of the main things that gives meaning to our daily lives.
The fact that we were brought together by a wonderful cause - wanting to help others - is ultimately the coolest part of all of this, because being in a room full of grateful, thankful people was better than anything in this world, for me! (and maybe most of us are around people in busy cities everyday but in much different contexts)
As Jack Johnson once sang, there is no combination of words that I can put on the back of a postcard, or recap in this case, and no amount of thank you’s that will fully express my gratitude, but I will try to summarize my thoughts here briefly.
First off, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, to ALL of the organizers, people, staff, helpers, venues, photographers, videographers, everyone (that I met and haven’t met) that made this event possible. It added so much value to our lives, even down to the smallest details, so the effort doesn’t go unnoticed!!! @TraciC @mchomsky (I wish I could tag everyone individually!) All the Googlers who presented and gave us great insight and such informative sessions and let us bug them with our issues and millions of questions, the Connect Moderators who always help me when I have online probz, and basically the entire Google ENTITY as a whole! I am sure that I speak for all of us when I say that we are thankful from the bottom of our hearts for those glorious 4 days together. Also, thank you @AdrianLunsong for an easy-to-follow template whichmade my life 100x easier writing this!
A special shout-out is also in order for the ones responsible for the great planning of the themes, the FRUIT EVERYWHERE, being vegan and all, it was right up my alley. The vegan Google Plant desserts, the Beyond Burgers, the careful consideration of options at every meal, the food catered at Forager that was phenomenal, again, a huge THANK YOU for that! I was so blown away and appreciative of the amenities that I have to mention it. It not only was great for vegan and vegetarian folks, but it also is a great example for the rest of the crowd that we can still eat an array of cuisines (healthy or flexible) without the need for unnecessary harm which is a big topic of conversation today with the attempt to reduce and reverse our carbon footprint on the planet.
P.S. I’ve never tried @PennyChristie 's Vegemite spread before but since it is rumored that vegans may be B-12 deficient and it is chock full of B vitamins, I will definitely be trying it and making a video about it to post on YouTube! (Stay Tuned)
Since we are a considerate bunch of Local Guides who are environmentally conscious, we can always find ways to individually/collectively help Mother Nature by hosting Clean-Up Meet Ups and Tree Planting, etc, etc, which is another thing that was inspired in me from this event. I promised myself that coming back to Boston, I will make it my goal to host at least my first meet-up ever to do something for the community. A meet-up will allow me to meet local guides from MY area and perhaps even recreate a fraction of what I felt in San Jose with y’all! After the award ceremony, I realized that I can invest more time into contributing so I can try to catch up to some of you guys who got some sweet recognition. Congrats to you guys, again! Visiting San Jose, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale is an experience to remember. The cities were all quaint, charming, and filled with history (E.g. History Park where I left my mark with some radish plants which are probably now flourishing)
Overall, the amount of love, kind words, knowledge, friendships, memories, made on this trip are better left unquantified. (Gifts do not go in this category but we did receive a lot of those of course, much appreciated!) And since photos speak a thousand words each, and we have thousands of photos so better to review them every so often like I have been since I’ve been back to remind myself of the pleasant emotions I felt throughout my time. It gives me peace to think that we all have friends scattered throughout the globe now, and who knows, maybe we will run into one another every so often because the world is becoming increasingly smaller and smaller as I get older.
It also became increasingly clear to me that feedback and an open communication loop between us and Google is important for issues to get resolved. This will motivate me to also be open and write more post and connect with my fellow LG’s and moderators to clear up any concerns we may be struggling with. As they say in school, if you have a question, you are most likely not the only one. Meaning if we have a concern, chances are somebody else may be having one too!
I will leave you all with my final thought for this story:
The tattoos we all shared may have been temporary, but the impressions left in my heart are forever!
Looking forward to hearing from everyone their opinions on CL’19 from my point of view! Cheers!
