It’s been a thrilling journey of four years and counting as a Local Guide. From the very start until now, the experience has been one full of great sense of purpose and fulfillment - evident from the number of likes and how helpful and impactful my reviews, photos, and videos have been to people or how many times my answers to community questions have been marked as best. This serves as an encouragement to do even more.
My name is Isaac Oguji - a Local Guide level 9 based in Lagos, Nigeria. Since I joined the Local Guides program in December 2015, I have garnered so much knowledge on Google products especially Maps. Through meeting people and attending meetups, I have developed a special interest in advocacy for safe spaces and safer roads in my local community as highlighted in my first-ever safety and most popular meetup - Lagos Safety Tour 2.0. Through my contributions, I have equally undertaken a path in writing extended reviews and adding Street View of important landmarks, green spaces, and notable points to Google Maps as seen in my most recent Street View for Valdosta Greens.
Fun fact about me: I love parrots - happens they are my best pets!
It took me four years to get to Level 9 with contributions on Maps spread across multiple tasks including edits, photos, videos, fact-checking and adding lists of my favorite places. But what’s more important is the quality of contributions and how helpful and informative they are and have been to people.
On what Local Guides program means to me: It means diversity!
In a nutshell, it’s an avenue to see the world for what it really is. For me, it is a space for community service and development, helping others by sharing knowledge of places. It has been a platform for knowledge gain and expansion. There’s always something new to learn and someone new to meet.
The Local Guides program is a pathway to interact with Googlers who share invaluable insights and stories about places and things to worth seeing and doing on Connect. This is a great privilege!
It has changed my perception of life:
The Local Guides program not only has influenced how I think about certain things in life, but also my perception of people and culture. I have met people of different religious affiliations, race, and color through Local Guides Connect and meetups including virtual meetups. The ability to consciously help others without expecting a reward in return is just in itself fascinating and self-gratifying. I feel the sense of purpose and belonging by each edit I make, each review I write, each photo I add and each person I meet simply by using the Maps and joining meetups that happen every other weekend.
There has not been a better program that has changed how I see and accept people with differences including personality, culture, tradition, food, and lifestyle than the LG program. Even when I am not in Sri Lanka, I can learn and share in the experience of its people, food, culture, and lifestyle through educative and insightful posts by fellow Sri Lanka Local Guides on Connect. This is just one illustration out of many to highlight the impact of this community.
It is a channel for creativity:
It is worthy of note to mention that the Local Guides program is multi-faceted and brings out the best of you. No matter what area or sphere of life you take interest and great passion in, there’s always a spot to make a difference and the Local Guides program always makes room to accommodate enterprise and innovation. A few initiatives that have been taken up by a number of Local Guides worldwide like Accessibility, Environment (Clean the World), Mapping (Map your World Week), Safety, Hospital Edit, Charity and Green Spaces to mention a few are evidence to highlight.
It has changed my lifestyle:
My desire to explore new places, see new things and meet new people evolved by joining the Local Guides platform. In retrospect, prior to joining the community, I seldom attended events or parties. But by attending meetups organized by other Local Guides, I have been able to develop an interest in heading out more, hosting my own meetups, inviting new members and growing the community. Now you can as well call me a party lover, the outgoer or the adventurist. My weekends are now often for meetups, exploring new places in Lagos and putting such places on Maps through photos, reviews, and more. More importantly, I have made both local and global friends who help shape the way I think about others and their way of life. A few people worth mentioning @U-royFelixA @SanyaOdare @Sayo @pwanaduku @KarenVChin @Rohlik @lajnhart @christophesubilia amongst a host of many others.
Looking to the future, the prospects are great. I plan on organizing more impactful meetups that focus on Street View education for local businesses as a tool to help them become more discoverable. The Local Guides program has not only exposed me to the constant use of Google Maps but has drastically expanded my knowledge on how to use it to the benefit of others whilst adding value to my knowledge base.
The friendships and connections matter a lot:
I won’t fail to mention that it has improved how I relate with others. I have learned from other Local Guides on ethics, community involvement, communication, healthy relationships and happenings around the world given that we are spread across the ends of the earth. Looking forward, it can only get better.
Personally, the experiences I’ve had through meetups have been surreal and I hope I’ve been able to inspire you reading this to stay the course and keep contributing quality content to the Maps, making the best of the Local Guides program whilst finding your passion and exploring it.
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Your Nigerian contribution is outstanding! I admire you, guys. Good luck to you! I hope to see you again!
