For me, the local guides program has always been about helping people. Being a local guide is a responsibility in itself. Right from rating a particular place to reviewing it. All this helps a user to identify a particular place according to his wish and need. For example, when I was on my maiden trip to Australia, I hardly knew what to do, which place to go or what to eat. All I had to do was to select the place with the most good reviews or with the best rating on Google and Voila! My itinerary was sorted. All thanks to the local guides who take out their time from their schedule to post meaningful and helpful reviews on Google. That’s how I got to know about the restaurant ‘Lord of the Fries’ which has now become my favorite!
![lord of fries. My favorite fries. [location:Melbourne, AUS]](https://d34vm3j4h7f97z.cloudfront.net/original/3X/5/a/5a5f07b6ff396ff19f18c3e6c756267b88ed0aa2.jpeg)
Another feature of this program that I found to be good is the local guides connect. Its where I got to interact with my fellow local guide members and share our experiences and contribute for newer advancements in the program and the Google maps at large. It has empowered me to come out of my comfort zone and be a part of a larger group. After all, strangers are just friends you haven’t met.
Apart from all these, the monthly letter from the Google local guides team that shows me how much I’ve progressed in a particular month, empowers me to do more and to achieve new goals every month. I think that’s the reason why I belong to the top percentile of the local guides here in my city.
I remember, back in 2018 in Sun city, Hyderabad was densely populated and I frequently used to visit that place because of its lush greenery and peace. I and my brother discovered a road that was hidden amidst the bushes which was actually a short cut to my home. I added that road to the google maps and forward to 2020, this is now a main road being used by almost everyone as this place is now quite populated. And now whenever me and my brother travel together, we remind ourselves of those days and credit ourselves for discovering this road and making it public to the entire online world!
I consider being a local guide has been one of the biggest achievements in my life. By being a part of it, I’ve learnt a lot and more importantly it has given a boost to my dream of exploring the world and helping people. From having 0 contributions to now having more than 2000+ contributions, it’s been a long journey full of excitement and lots of learning. Thank you Google for letting me be a part of it and I’ll see you at the connect live 2020!
Thank you.