As this month, Connect is turning 5, I decided that I will share my experiences as a Local Guide and how Connect has impacted in making me a better person and how it let me see the world in a much beautiful way.
In this post, I will try to share my throughout experiences as a Local Guide from the start of my Local Guide journey.
Connect is that one push when I was a beginner to Local Guides Program in early 2017. When I discovered about Connect, it was the first social platform for me to really share my thoughts, get inspired and to know the importance of contributions to the community.
How I started as a Local Guide
I come from a Civil Engineering background and I was a student in 2017, and I was in love with building designing those times and due to that I took a photo of a Hotel I stayed in Hyderabad to design in a building designing software. Later, I got a notification from Google Maps to add it to that place and I think I clicked yes simply. Later a week, I got an invitation email from Google Maps to become as a Local Guide and the email was saying the photo I added has got 1000 views in a week which just amazed me and I got inspired and right away signed up for Local Guides Program.
How I discovered and stared loving Connect
After joining to the Local Guides program, I was just taking my bike and travelling to different places in my town to take the store front photos to add it to Google Maps. And those times, I was looking for someone who is knowing about Local Guides Program so that I can learn more but I couldn’t find those times. On Google Maps when I saw that with old level points, on reaching Level 5, I can get a chance to attend Summit, I searched about it and through that I discovered Local Guides Connect. I just checked out few posts in Connect and I created a post saying I got 1000 views in Google Maps and I was not knowing there are people having millions of views. In that post, there was a Local Guide who commented saying Congratulations. 1000 views is a great number. That is the exactly the moment I fell in love with Connect. Seeing people around the world appreciating for the small contribution I did. That was the push from Connect when I was a beginner as a Local Guide. After that I started contributing more and being active in Connect and in that journey with Connect, it gave me lots of wonderful Local Guides friends who I feel they are my closest friends.
How my perceptions got changed in my Local Guide journey
When I was new to Local Guides program, I was thinking of getting something back for my contributions. I applied for Local Guides Summit 2017 and I was not selected and I was disappointed initially. Later I saw the bigger picture. I am Local Guide and what I do is my contribution and in the world, not for all the things, we have expect something back. Being a Local Guide, I learnt things, I contribute, I got inspired and I got so many amazing local friends. That’s how When I apply in 2019 and didn’t selected, it didn’t disappoint me since being a Local Guide is a part of my life and I am being a Local Guide for myself.
Local Guides Meetups
Being active in Connect, I got amazing friends globally who inspire me, teach me and support me. On learning from the Local Guides Team and from the local guide friends, I hosted many Meetups throughout my journey. Some Meetups I hosted with respect to the Worldwide Local Guide Meetups and through that I got to meet with wonderful Local Guides who I met through the Meetup.
I remember my first ever Meetup in 2017 when I went to nearby city and hosted a Meetup in the Fort and my friend who joined after me to Local Guides Program came with me to the Meetup. When we reached Meetup place, no one else came and I invited one of my friends who reside nearby to come and attend the Meetup. We had a great time taking photos of the Fort and adding it to Google Maps.
Throughout the Local Guides journey, I am thankful for the so many amazing Local Guides attended the Meetup I hosted and the magical thing is right after meeting those Local Guides attending Meetup, it felt like we know each other.
Travel
Talking about travel, the first thing comes to my mind is my journey to the Connect Live 2018. I was not expecting to get selected as I know there were so many amazing Local Guides contributing much more.
I applied for Connect Live 2018 and one of my closest local guides friends reminded me to check for the email if I got selected as results were rolling out those time. I was going back to home after work and on checking the email and I couldn’t believe that I got selected after reading the mail from Local Guides Team and that was my birthday also and it was one of the best times.
I travelled to San fransisco for Connect Live and it was the first time I ever travelled in airplane. I met many of my Connect friends at Connect Live 2018 and got so many new friends and meeting Local Guides Team was inspiring. You can check out my Connect Live 2018 Recap post here.
There were two other travel experiences which is close to my heart. Travelling to Delhi for Connect Live Delhi in 2018. Here is the recap post I wrote about my experience at Connect Live Delhi 2018. The other one was also travelling to Delhi for attending Asia One Summit. You can check out the my experience in Asia One Summit here. In these two Meetups also, I got the chance to meet many of the Local Guides friends from India and it was a memorable experience.
Discovered passion for my photography
Being a Local Guide, taking photos for adding to Google Maps, I started loving photography and I bought DSLR to improve my photography skills and take great photos. And in Connect Live 2018, when Ricoh Theta V was gifted by Local Guides Team to all the Connect attendees including me and it took me to another level of learning about 360 Photography and virtual tours and I become Google Street View Trusted Photographer. Even recently I bought few additional tools and lense for my DSLR for taking great photos. Now with the passion for photography, I learnt about Drones and bought recently DJI Mini 2 and hoping to travel to many places for writing about it in Connect with some great photos of those places.
In my Local Guide journey there were so many wonderful memories, meeting with local guides friends, talking with business owners and contributing in Google Maps to correct and add information, sharing in Connect, etc and I am thankful to everyone who were part of my Local Guides journey.
Ending this post with a happy birthday note for Local Guides Connect. Happy Birthday Local Guides Connect.
Take care. Stay safe. Peace.
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