Today I had the chance to talk with a fellow driver, and a Juneau local about what people want when they hire a tour guide to take them around any given place. He suggested that people want the wild west sort when they come here. They want rough and tumble, tell it like it is and embellish a lot on the way. I disagreed.
I told him I get a great connection with my passengers when I am simply myself. I try , of course to be entertaining, but I let them know right up front that I'm from Idaho, not Juneau - and I have found that people really respond to the sincerity of the adventure I'm on and to my genuine enthusiasm about being here in Alaska for the summer.
He thinks I'm crazy, but the more I thought about it, and the more we talked, the more convinced I am that we can really only be who we are. I"m not a wild Alaska native. I"m a pretty simple girl, from a fairly quiet place, and I'm having a wonderful adventure in the Wild West of Alaska, but I'm not the product of that wild west. I can't pretend I am, and I shouldn't even try!
And so today has taught me a greater life lesson. Each of us needs to be the person we are with others. People respond to that. They appreciate the sincerity that comes with being genuine! And more importantly, we need to appreciate who we are as individuals, and by doing so we are more capable of giving of ourselves, because we have learned what it is to be ourself.
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