This post is the part of Week 1 - My achievements are… #ConnectTurns5Challenge,the week 1 challenge initiated by @AdrianLunsong . Although this challenge announcement was posted a month ago, but no worries at all because Adrian said that we could post it anytime or forever. We could celebrate our achievement anytime that we like, right? Make everyday as a celebration 
Among many posts that I have written where mostly is about Food & Drink, the fun fact is this is MY VERY FIRST post about Achievements.
Many things have happened and changed in 2020, especially because of the pandemic. But one thing for sure, our spirit in contributing, helping, and shaping the Local Guides community has to remain the same and even better. I think 2020 was the year where I spent my time the most on Connect. Many thanks to the existence of this wonderful global community, I could spend my time, boredness, tiredness because of the pandemic situation by contributing in a good way, making new global friends, getting new references in many aspects, as well as learning new things through Connect and virtual meet-ups hosted by fellow Local Guides.
Anyway, I got many new badges and Google Maps points in 2020. I believe that you got it too, right? 
But among all, my biggest achievement as a Local Guide in 2020 was chosen as part of the 50 Guiding Stars who went above and beyond in this community.
There are five categories in Guiding Stars. They are Helpful Heroes, Inclusive Mapper, Creative Contributor, Community Builder, and Local Business Champion. And another fun fact is, I have already read each Guiding Stars’ story on the link above 
Happy to know them better and definitely getting new inspirations.
When we were invited to the virtual keynote with Googlers, at first we did not know at all what Guiding Stars are. It was such a surprise for us to get this amazing recognition at the end of 2020. I even attended this virtual keynote at a dawn my time! I went to bed earlier, set my alarm to wake up, then after the virtual keynote, I continued to sleep again 
Too excited to attend! And so happy to see the other 49 Guiding Stars along with Googlers that dawn.
During the virtual keynote, I thought that I will be recognized as a Creative Contributor or Local Business Champion 
And then, it turned out that I was recognized as a Community Builder. It is said that we always put the community first to make sure everyone is supported and connected, especially during a year when getting together in person was not always possible as you can see in this post : How Local Guides cultivated community in 2020 and stayed connected from home.
I am so honored to be the part of the other 9 amazing Community Builders.
Once again, thank you so much to Googlers, Google & Connect Moderators, along with fellow Local Guides for this opportunity 
If you ask me what is the RECIPE to get perks from Google even until become a Guiding Star, my answer would be simple. I do not have any recipe to make it (unless you ask me for a food recipe though 
), but my advice is just always enjoying all of the activities in Local Guides community whether in Google Maps, Connect, meet-up wholeheartedly without any forcing. Do what you like, share your thought, idea with like-minded Local Guides. Do not ever expect to get something from Google. We are not getting paid from Google because we are not a Google employee!
If someday you get perks from Google, then take it as a BONUS with gratitude.
Let me share you a great post from @davidhyno about Local Guides makes we rich?
An older post with deep message that I highly suggest you to read.
As a reminder, here are the 4 weeks challenge that you could still contribute. We are going to wait your submission until the third week of August 2021 if you want your post to be the part of the challenge recap.
Week 1 - My achievements are… #ConnectTurns5Challenge
Week 2 - What Connect means to me… #ConnectTurns5Challenge
Week 3 - Shaping Connect to be… #ConnectTurns5Challenge
Week 4 - A look back to our very first… #ConnectTurns5Challenge
4 months to Christmas 
and 5 months to New Year 2021 
Until then, stay safe and happy!
. And without connect forum, surely 2020 was going to be boring for me.