Covid’s Silver Lining: Community
The Guide Collective Travel Community
Here at Guide Collective, we, as a community of guides, come up with monthly topics to write about, and May’s theme is “Community.” Most of us have lived under various levels of lockdown over the past year and because of this, the level at which we can participate in our various communities has been changed and so has how we participate (Zoom, anyone?). As an unemployed tour guide, I have had ample time to reflect on the different communities in my life and how they have evolved or simply morphed over the past year.
Covid has affected most of us in one way or another. If another person tells me I should be enjoying my extended “vacation” from work, I might just slap them! For me, the most difficult part of the last year has been worrying about friends and family—those isolated and struggling while trying to stay healthy and those who became ill or had other health issues that are difficult to face even under the best circumstances. The fear of having to go to the hospital or not being able to stay with someone who was admitted for whatever reason was a prevalent occurrence among people I know. And losing people was all too common. Commiserating with the living for the loved ones we have lost, not having the chance to say goodbye in person, not being allowed to have a real memorial, or not having the opportunity to simply embrace the grieving is almost unbearable…and this is ongoing. We have physically been cut off from our communities.
Loss of work comes in second place to loss of lives, but it has still been a terrible blow. And it is not just the lack of income, it’s having lost a sense of purpose, direction, usefulness, inspiration and contact with people. The people who took my tours—strangers who became friends—and also the restauranteurs, hoteliers, local guides, our office staff, and the colleagues I would always meet up with while on tour have long been a part of my life, and now I have no idea when I’ll see them again. While I consider myself lucky to have an immediate family with whom I love spending time, I am mourning the loss of my other communities that have essentially been put on hold. The New York Times published an article on April 22, 2021, written by organizational psychologist Adam Grant, entitled “There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing,” and it really resonated with me and all the things I’ve been feeling this past year.
The first community that most of us come to recognize is our family. Whether you come from a small or large family, these are the ties that define us and give us a starting point for all the other communities we encounter as our lives progress. Schools, churches, neighbourhoods, countries, work, government, friends…the list is endless as we look for anchors and a shared sense of place, both physical and virtual, that give meaning to our lives.
Virtual communities have become especially important over the past year because how we are allowed to engage with people has changed. All of the contact I have with my extended family (most of whom live in North America) and with most of my friends these days is virtual. This is probably true for you, too. While I am thankful to have this contact, it will never replace seeing people in person.
When I moved to Italy in 1997, I would spend 20,000 lire (two hours of teaching at the time) to phone my family in the states for roughly 10 minutes and the phone would always cut off before having the chance to say goodbye. These days, we are sometimes thankful that our Zoom calls end after 45 minutes, although I am sure it’s because we are simply tired of all the screen time, right? This is, however, one of the bright spots of the pandemic. The amazing advance in communication technology has kept us from being more shut-off from each other and the world. In fact, if you are reading this, you are part of a new community that was born from ashes of the tour industry and, like a phoenix, has taken flight: The Guide Collective.
At this time last year, the GC was just starting to come together. Sarah Murdoch and Trish Feaster were, and still are, the driving forces as this concept has evolved, but it really is a collective. All of us, a bunch of unemployed tour guides, were having weekly meetings as colleagues and friends, trying to keep sane and bolster each other’s spirits when this idea was conceived. It was keeping us from languishing even if we couldn’t define exactly what we were feeling. We brainstormed and worked on figuring out our individual strengths, and we pushed ourselves to cultivate new outlets as guides/teachers. Speaking for myself, it gave me something positive and challenging to focus on as my world was tipped upside down. With two kids attending school online, my husband working from home, and ironically, with too much free time and yet no time to myself, there was no sense of normalcy, and no end in sight. The Guide Collective has been a lifesaver, and it is far more than seeing my friends faces on a screen.
The GC has challenged me to learn new skills, editing and writing among others. It has challenged me to try new things; virtual talks, cooking demos, and live streams weren’t on my radar but have proven to be a reasonable alternative as a means of engaging with people who yearn to travel. It has also allowed me to connect more with old friends and make new ones. In short, it’s helped me stay sane, and it’s kept me dreaming and thinking about what’s next. As the world reopens, I, for one, will be seeing it through a new lens.
One of our GC supporters, Kajha Rogers, recently wrote on our GC Facebook Page:
I'm so grateful for this community. When everything else is overwhelming, this year of virtual travel has been such a joy. Getting to know each one of you in the Guide Collective has been a real treat. Not to overstate how I feel about you all when I talk to friends about what cool content I'm watching, I often say, "I'm going to Paris with my friend Trish" or "I'm going paddling with my friend Charlie." Big love & thanks to each of you.
Janis Nelson, another of our regular followers, shared these thoughts:
Your spirit and determination are inspiring. You have no idea how the work you have done in the past year forming GC has lifted our spirits and given us hope in such turbulent times. I see an amazing future ahead.
Thank you, dear readers, from the bottom of my heart for giving us a chance as we explore this bold new world. The feedback you give us and the level of participation and interaction you share during our events means the world to us, and here’s some proof: Sarah Murdoch’s founder’s letter expresses our community beautifully, and I asked the rest of our GC team what this experience has meant to them and would like to share their responses starting with our Managing Editor, Trish Feaster:
They say, “necessity is the mother of invention.” How true this rings for the community that’s been built and continues to grow from Guide Collective. Sometimes, we take for granted the relationships and connections we have with others and don’t realize their significance in our lives until those links are disrupted. When we all abruptly lost the ability to travel and work the way we’d become accustomed to, we also lost our opportunities to encounter our dear friends and colleagues along our journeys.
For me, GC created a new opportunity and means to not only re-establish these ties of friendship in a deeper and integrated way, but it also introduced me to new friends who inspire me constantly. I have newfound purpose and daily focus to support my fellow guides as we generate new forms of connection to our travelers and as we nurture our unified love for bridging cultures and communities. GC is a lifeline in countless ways. We gratefully receive so much more than we give, and it inspires us to give back even more.
Nina Seffusati (Denmark and France):
GC is one of my communities who saved my sanity through these crazy times and made me connect with lovely people I might never have met or talked to, although we are in the same business. Merci/tak/danke/grazie/thanks/gracias to all of you!
Susan Brown (Scotland):
For me, the GC community has allowed me to be part of an international network of guides. I love being able to contribute to our joint efforts to promote our passion, knowledge and learn from each other. Whilst I have only met 2 of the guides in person, I look forward to meeting others and am very tempted to sign up to their tours when we can all travel again!
Susanna Perruchini (Italy and Spain):
Being part of such talented group of people gave me the courage to challenge myself, approach new technologies, and re-discover simple pleasures, such as writing articles or sharing my passion for reading with a wider audience. In a word: a lifesaver!
Charlie Rawson (UK):
GC is an extended family that has provided support and inspiration this past year. Through sharing challenges and tackling them with creativity, our community has become stronger, more intuitive, and increasingly resilient. This is great for our mental well-being, sense of belonging, and is a fantastic foundation for the great things that are to come! I am filled with gratitude and excited about the journey ahead.
Francisco Glaría Baines (Spain):
GC has been an incredible mental support in this year of craziness. If this were not enough, being around this group of talented people has made me learn how to write better in English, how to create videos, how to use social media. It has really been the best thing to come from COVID.
Jorge Roman (Spain):
My only purpose in the early days of GC was to keep myself occupied. Soon I discovered the connection we were creating and opened some doors to things I would have never thought I could get involved in. Although it was virtually, I soon realized these colleagues and people I consider “true friends” are really there for me, emotionally and physically, even if behind the "virtual wall." And the most important: my voice is heard. I have no words to thank them all.
Elizabeth Lister (Scotland):
GC is a warm virtual hug when I see guides who are good friends at our weekly meetings. It is keeping the cogs of my brain turning over in the absence of guiding. It is challenging myself to master technology and social media and to get out of my comfort zone!
Anna Savino (Italy):
GC was instantly a new group of friends who shared the same passions for travel and accepted me with open arms. They pushed me to do better and step up to new technology and new ways of connecting with people. Their brilliant minds kickstarted a creativity that I had lost in my daily routines and reminded me how efficient people can be if they put their minds to it! I am so grateful to have met such a dynamic and fun group of tour guides who have now become great friends.
Julian Brown (UK and France):
The novel virtual world of GC, born out of the sudden and brutal change to life brought about by the pandemic, has meant that we can travel all the time and constantly be with fabulous colleagues, who, in the past, we might have passed briefly on the road once a season if we were lucky. A brave, and in some ways, wonderful new world!
Community comes in all forms and sometimes in ways that you don’t anticipate. Before the pandemic, none of us could have imagined that we would have this opportunity to connect to our friends and colleagues in this way or that our worlds would expand to include such an amazing group of travelers who support us and inspire us so much. And now we can’t imagine life without GC and all of you. Thank you for being a part of our GC Community!
Guide Collective
From top row to bottom, left to right:
Liz Lister, Fran Glaría, Nina Seffusatti, Ben Curtis, Susan Brown, Jorge Román;
Reid Coen, Helen Houston, Roberto Bechi, Anna Savino, Julian Brown, Åsa Danielsson;
Juliet Roman-Olsen, Andrew Villone, Lisa Anderson, Colin Mairs, Charlie Rawson, Susanna Perrucchini;
Sarah Murdoch, Trish Feaster
