What does the Local Guides program mean to me?
What does the local guide program mean to you?
This was the prompt given in the entry form for Connect Live 2020, and like so many other Guides, this will be catalyst for my first foray into Local Guides Connect.
You can read more about the prompt and criteria in the post How to write a great application post for Connect Live 2020 by @TraciC (thank you @MashaPS for the link!)
Like so many of the other catalysts in my life, at first this question seems simple and any response to it mundane. When I think about it more, though, I realize the intricacies of the prompt and the depth of my potential answer. The program has meant many things to me over the years, and as the program has grown and evolved, so has my relationship with it and what it has meant to me.
So… I have decided to make an honest effort to embrace the spirit of the question and reflect my genuine perspective on some of the key ways in which the Local Guides program holds meaning to me.
Background: My History with the Local Guides Program
I have been a member of the Local Guides program since 2016 (see the photo below for my welcome email once I reached level 3!), since before it was available to the general public and before anyone really understood what it would grow to symbolize. I joined out of a personal passion for engagement with new and innovative uses of technology, particularly in ways that help empower and raise up local community, and this program aligned well with with all of my interests.
Since then, I have worked my way up from Level 3 to Level 8, and I hope to continue that journey as I learn new and exciting ways to use the program. The Local Guides program has been and continues to be a consistent element of my life and an integral part of my identity. Just as the program was still a work-in-progress when I joined, so was I, and I truly feel like I have grown up alongside a friend in the past 4 years.
Growth and Development
Each new evolution in the program, from added features to improvements in the ways we access existing features, has come at the same time as developments in my own life. With each contribution or level I gained in the Local Guides program, I was steadily growing older and gaining experiences that brought about new levels of awareness for myself. I still remember the joy I felt whenever I would reach a new level, and the excitement and eagerness of looking to what came next. I still look over my contributions often just as a gauge for how far I have come.
The Local Guides program has encouraged me to get out and explore the world around me, to step outside of my comfort zone. In this exploration of the world around me, I have also explored myself in relation to the world around me, coming to know and love the small businesses in my area as well as developing a passion for seeking new ones, at home and in my journeys elsewhere.
I have also come to develop the confidence and charisma that make all of this possible. It has been quite some time since a friend has rolled their eyes or laughed when I excitedly snap pictures of their meal and the surroundings at a new restaurant. Instead, now they offer their support and suggestions; “Here, let me turn the plate for a better angle,” they will say, or “You should get a video of the Red Tea tea mixing; let me hold the camera while you pour!” In this simple gesture, I feel loved and accepted. In the output, I can share that love and acceptance with the world.
Though I have been involved at some capacity consistently since the beginning, my participation in the program has varied. As with any passion, and any aspect of life in general, it has been subject to the rigorous natural process of survival that all things must face, living and otherwise. We only have so much time here, and so much energy we can expend during that time. What we once thought were passions become interests become old news. Our life passes before our eyes, and as it does, we must decide what we carry forward from moment to moment, from month to month, from year to year. Like changes in the seasons, our lives are filled with cycles of transition along the spectrums of loss and gain, death and birth, decline and growth, and so forth. Friends and family come and go, always in our hearts but not necessarily in our lives. We should hope that what we do has meaning, that we live with purpose, and as I will discuss next, this program survives for that very reason.
Community, Family, and Purpose
I have always seen the Local Guides program as a way to share my small piece of the world with the world at large. The program empowers me as an individual to discover and bring visibility to the community around me. Every review and photo is another chance for my favorite local restaurants, shops, watering holes, and so forth to be discovered by others, and this is a win for everyone. Others get to experience what I know and love, we all have more chances of interacting with people outside of our circles, and I get the feeling of giving back to the community that has made me into the person I am.
The community element of Local Guides was one of the things that first drew me in, and is one of the primary reasons I have returned time and time again. I feel great joy every time someone likes a review I wrote, every time I see a summary of how many people have viewed my photos and possibly used them as a deciding factor in whether to visit my favorite restaurants, every time I give an answer to someone and get a thank you in return, or when someone in the real work tells me they know me from my Google reviews.
As you can see in my video response to the Local Connect 2020 application, A Visit to the Vietnam Star: A Favorite Local Restaurant for Family, Friends, and Delicious Food, I have a very deep connection with the places that I come to know and love. I consider many of the people who run the businesses I frequent to be family, and my friend and blood family are a part of this world just the same. There are also many people who are deeply connected to my life who I would not know if I had not decided to go and find a new place to review, deep bonds with others and parts of who I am that I can trace back to my involved in Local Guides, as silly as that might sound to some.
My continued engagement with the program is not an obligation, not for the points or the rewards, but for the sense of purpose. I have never felt like I am under pressure to write a review, to post a photo, or to answer questions. Instead, I feel like I am the one in control of my experience, like I am contributing because I want to, because I know that by doing so, I am doing so much more than writing a review, so much more than posting a photo… I am bringing people together. I am helping others connect, whether local or otherwise, and that is a great feeling.
Summary and Thank You
There are so many other reasons why I participate in the Local Guides program; this only briefly touches on my love for the program and the positive influences it has had on my life. Overall, I particularly love the opportunity to help my community and the potential for self-growth that comes along with that.
The local guide program has survived the process of elimination time and time again. It has survived blogs, novels, hobbies, friendships, careers, and even a marriage. Each time I post a review or a photo, I am reminded of how far I have come since I first joined, of the legacy that is being carried forward by my continued participation, and I am proud. It is seldom I find a program or activity that meets the critical intersection of passion, skill, and value and remains there for long enough to build up such an association. As many do, I look back at missed or underappreciated opportunities and lament what could have been… Local Guides is not among the graveyard of failed endeavors, and for that I am grateful.
I hope that, regardless of whether I am accepted to the Local Connect 2020 event, I can carry this legacy forward. I truly feel that this program is more than local we are more than guides; this is a program of community, bringing us together on a global scale and letting us see beyond our small windows into the world.
I thank anyone who reads this, and hope it can inspire you. We all have our roles to play in this world; I just hope to pursue mine with integrity, honesty, and an open spirit of adventure and learning.
Stay well!
- Andrew Petriuusi
