Hi all!
My Name is Cecilia Ratto and I live in Buenos Aires City, in Argentina. I am married and I have a school-age son.
More than a year ago, my life used to be a normal life. My days were long, and in some way I felt somewhat overwhelmed by the many obligations imposed by modern life. I always liked technology, photography, traveling, getting to know new places and cultures and taking care of the environment. I love tourism and museums and places with a lot of history. I really like making friends and sharing experiences, and I have always felt personal satisfaction doing things to help others. During that time, I had started to wonder if there could be something I could do where all my interests could fit, when I discovered the Local Guides, causing a big change and a big impact in my life.
Some time has passed since then, and now I want to talk about what the program means to me, directly talking about how each point impact directly in my life.
… Friendship
The program gave me the opportunity to meet countless of the most diverse and interesting people and to make lots of friends around the world. During the last year I met the most beautiful people, always ready to help selflessly, to give a word of encouragement or to share their achievements and adventures with the world. A big army of friends with the same interests and who share the most beautiful values.
… Knowledge Share and Community
It allowed me to apply my knowledge and taste for technology, to help other Local Guides in Argentina get to know each other and contribute more and better, participating in the creation of profiles on social networks, chat groups, challenges in Connect and even a podcast in Spanish to give tips and help to other local Local Guides.
… Selfless help
It gave me the opportunity to help others, identifying accessible places for people with different needs, and for so many others to know where to go, through my collaborations on the map through the reviews and photos I uploaded, that places and routes I added, and of course by the collaborations in Connect.
… Care and awareness
I was able to organize a Clean The World meet-up in my city, to help in the elimination of plastic waste that pollute rivers and raise awareness in the care of the environment.
… Tourist as a local
It gave me the opportunity to be a tourist in my own city, organizing almost a dozen meet-ups and attending more than the double of that in the last year, where I was able to enjoy and get to know the most interesting places, which I had never been able to see before.
To finish, I would like to talk about one of the most unexpected meanings that arises without even noticing it… Healthiness!
Healthiness is for sure the most unexpected and very welcomed change that the Local Guides program brought to my life. I used to be a very sedentary person due to my technical work, and I used to spend long hours sitting in a chair with my computer. I hardly had time to go to the gym and it was so difficult for me to keep myself active and in good shape. Being part of the Local Guides program impacted directly on these habits and made me exercise without even noticing the effort and even enjoying it a lot! The long walks during the meet-ups, improved my health, making me feel completely better and with a lot of energy.
To sum up, I can say that the Local Guides program means a lot of things to me and that it improved my life completely. It is a great pleasure to be part of the best army of friends in the world! I will be completely grateful for ever!
Does the Local Guides program bring some unexpected benefit to your life? Please, tell me in the comments!
Great post! Good luck to you! Can you send me a link to your Spanish podcast, please? I’m wondering how much I can understand after few years break from learning Spanish. Take care and stay healthy! Hugs from Poland 
, at the end it is indeed an impact on life as well.
