At the beginning I didn’t knew anything
I was, like many, just a Google Maps user.
On July 2016, casually, I discovered the possibility to contribute, and this possibility changed my life. However, I could never have imagined the power that Local Guides have to change the world.
What I thought was that yes, Google could have that power, but not individual people.
With this in mind, on September 2016, I knocked on Google Door, asking them to change the world. On October 6, I discovered Local Guides Connect, so I knocked again, this time on the door of this community. And the community responded, they responded immediately and, after a few days, Google responded too, with the voice of Traci.
In that very moment I discovered that I was not alone, I discovered what it means “to be a Local Guide”, I discovered the power of “Working Together”, I discovered that Local Guides are not people closed on a dark room in front of a computer. Every Local Guide lives a real life, a Local Guide shares real experiences. And the Local Guides MEET.
Everything I loved was here in this community: Travel, Photography, Volunteering for helping people, the possibility to discover places and to exchange experience.
Falling in Love
How not to Fall in Love with the program, and with the community. I started to become more active, and I learned quickly how to be a better Local Guide, I learned that “we are building a virtual representation that we can use to move on the real world, closing in this way the circle of Real - Virtual - Real”
When we visit a place now we can say that “we have already been there” through the feeling of other Local Guides.
I started then to meet other Local Guides, traveling around Italy first, and then Europe, discovering other people who share the same feeling, the same love. Then, on the house of Google, in California
Changing the world. In some way, this is a matter of fact. Contributing, improving the information, we change the “virtual representation” of the world. But working together, we can also change the “real world”.
The Power of one - “The most interesting thing I have done in Connect”
Here is my story.
Everything started on a sunny, bright, cold day of the beginning of January 2018. I like to walk on the seaside, on winter. Just before the sunset, the light is sharp, the contrast high, perfect for the photo I had in mind. What I was not expecting, was to find a stain of colorful bottle caps. I started to pay more attention, and to see more plastic, all along the beach.
“OMG”, was the thought of my ecologist side, “we have to clean the beach”. “We have to organize a meet-up” responded, in no time, my Local Guide soul. “Hey, we can do more” said my professional and coordinator side, “we can Clean The World”. The most interesting thing I did (and I still doing) as a Local Guide, started in that moment.
I started to think, I started to write, to contact person, I create a contest for designing a Logo, and in less than three months everything was ready. On March 27, 2018, at 01:29 AM, LocalGuidesCleanTheWorld was live in Connect.
What did I learn? I learned that if we have an idea and believe in it, we can really do something great in this community.
The Power of the Community
What can transform your idea in a real, effective action that can impact the world, is the power of the community.
The community, this community, welcomed my proposal, and wanted to join me.
More than hundreds clean-ups in five continents, hundreds Local Guides involved, a huge amount of plastic, and waste, removed. Local Guides can really change the world, virtually and physically.
One map, continuously updated, is showing to the world the power that the community has.
Most of this was, I want to say, completely unexpected. My first target was to run the program for one year. One year was in fact necessary just to spread the message, and we are now really on the second anniversary, ready to do more and more.
Some event was very special on my heart, but all of them are equally important, all of them are spreading awareness.
Yes, I am very proud of this, and for sure this is one of the most interesting thing I have done in Connect, and I still doing, as a Local Guide
Welcome to my world
Being a Local Guide, I cannot separate the world where I live in pieces.
Every element of our planet is on the map: business of course, our preferred restaurants, the places where we go for shopping, but also the rivers, the parks, the nature that is around us, and that I want to keep clean.
Love is not partial, cannot be partial. Loving our planet means for me to love it completely.
Today I want to share with you the place where I live, and to show you why I love it.
Check my list for traveling in there. Venice and its Lagoon - Art an Nature
Welcome to my world, hope you will have a lot of fun.
Of course, hope to see you on the Bay Area
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