When “Thank You” is More Meaningful than “I Love You” 
I am smiling looking at the reality and dreams.
Siem Reap, Cambodia| November 2016

I was having a conversation with myself during the last day of the year and I realized that the sweetest and most meaningful thing you can say to someone, is not I Love You. It is the simplest phrase that we can say and overuse (but we tend to forget), it is Thank You.

We oftentimes take things and people for granted – because we get busy living our lives, making memories and maybe, sharing our successes and happiness with people online (social media) and offline. 

This post is dedicated to all the people who helped and made my year (and the previous years of my life) alot more awesome.

To the people who I got to work with:

Thank you for choosing me. Thank you for choosing your time to spend with me. Working as a freelancer and being your own boss means having different bosses everyday. Thank you for believing in me (and my blog). Thank you for giving me challenges that allow me to improve my craft. Thank you for the recommendations and the kind words that translate into more projects and opportunities for me. 

To my readers:

When I started blogging, I wanted to stay anonymous. But times (and blogging) have changed. I started sharing more about my life. I feel connected with my readers (even if I only know most of them by name). 

Yellow Cab Pizza event wherein I met 2 of my blog readers 🙂

To my blogger friends:

I don’t think I would ever enjoyed attending events and going on press trips without the bloggers I now considered as friends. Truth is, it is a jungle out here. It is hard to find someone you can trust, help you and push you to be better at what you do (especially if you guys are doing the same things). Thank you for being with me and for choosing to attend events with me 🙂 Thank you for allowing me to share my life (outside of blogging) and for listening to my stories.

Just some of my bloggies who joined me during my #harrybirthdayruth party. 
I celebrate life everyday with them and it was my first time to celebrate my birthday.

To my closest friends:

I am lucky to be surrounded with positive people and to have met friends who help me become the better version of myself. But in this life, there would only be a few who would choose to stay (not because those who left our lives no longer want to be with us – but because they now have different interests, life and people who share their goals in life). Life tip: don’t take it against the person/your friend. That’s part of living in this world. We may have friends that we no longer got to talk to as often as we want to – even if we want to. So for the friends who chose to stay and listen to my stories and frustrations – thank you. 

(choosing not to post their photos because they are not into social media :)) But most of them already appeared in my instagram 😀 

A #harrybirthdayruth that sounded like a #HappyChineseNewYear greeting from all of my wonderful friends ⚡Haha It was amazing to see everyone enjoy the party and have a great time! Thank you all for coming!!! 💖💋 #thisisruth #harrybirthdayruth #claraolewizardry #HarryPotter @chuckiedreyfus @yendreyfus @paultheprguy @ruthfloresca @melovillareal @kumagcow @jlougar @rodelflordeliz @mykesoon @certifiedfoodies

A video posted by R U T H D E L A C R U Z (@ruthilicious) on Feb 7, 2016 at 6:43pm PST

To my friends, network, social media and Mark Zuckerberg! Yes Mark! 

Can I just say how brilliant Mark Zuckerberg for continuing to improve Facebook and making it a lot more engaging to use? It keeps the users in the platform and it allows me to stay connected to my friends and network – giving me a glimpse of what’s new in their life (when I do not have the time to press “new message”.

One of my favorite travels in 2016: Barcelona, Spain

Thank you to my friends who share the happy pictures of their family, their fitness progress, their career achievements, their travel adventures and advocacies. I am happy to take part in your successes and happiness. Thank you for inspiring me and reminding me that life is not just about what I do. Thank you too for the likes, loves and engagements that you give to my posts. Thank you for letting me know that I help you in some way through my blogs and stories. It is an empowerment and validation for me that I made the right decision 3 years ago. 

To the people who I do not know but make my life simpler:

The people I got to interact with and meet randomly everyday – from Uber drivers, guards, sales people, messengers, and strangers. I believe that God sent them on purpose to make life easy for me and I hope I made life meaningful for them somehow. Thank you!!!

To my friends all over the world who I only met once:

My previous work and the things that I do allow me to meet friends all over the world. I got used to saying hello and goodbye, and my thoughts would always be – “when will I ever see them again?”. Thank you for the chance to get to know you, and your culture. Thank you for knowing me too.

… and to you:

Thank you for allowing me to be the same old chic that I am. Thank you for allowing me to be myself. When I am myself, I am stronger and happier. Thank you.

… and to my family:

I don’t think I ever said Thank you and I Love You as often as I need to – probably because I know that you guys will always be there even if I fail. Even though sometimes I feel that you guys are not the most supportive cheering squad 😀 , that challenges me to work harder.  We probably all grow up not being so vocal about our feelings. We all talk like tigers and lions. But thank you for supporting my decision to leave a stable job (in a multinational company – hello IBM! I just have to mention the Big Blue!) just to “do something I love”. 

My friends and the people I met are surprised at how I get to survive doing this for 3 years. More than my financial stability, I have to give it to you guys for all the support. Thank you for allowing me to sleep and wake up late when I want to (sleep is luxury for me). 

Thank you “mahmeh!” for always saving me (!!!) (ah, I remember the days when I was working and my expenses were higher than my salary). Thank you for allowing my #bloggermails stay in our living room, kitchen and your room for days until I got the time to take photos 😀 Thank you for telling me you get sad whenever I travel because it makes me look forward to coming home. Thank you for allowing me to be me. 

All the good things in my life (my successes, happiness, experiences, skills and decisions) and the people around me are all because of Him.  It is true that when you want something, all the universe will conspire to make it happen. 

They say the future is looking bright 🙂 

Oftentimes I think that Thank You is truly much more meaningful than I love you. It makes both the giver and receiver feel better. It motivates people to do better and result to contagious act of kindness. As per medical records, saying Thank You is simple and never results to heartaches 😉

Here’s the best effort to do a year-end video but I couldn’t seem to fit all my videos. Just few snaps from my 2016:

If this post inspires you, take the time to watch this video from Air Asia Philippines and help spread the spirit of gratitude.

Who do you want to say thank you to?

Do it now. Spread the love and like this post 🙂 Thank you. 

Follow me @ruthilicious on Instagram and Twitter.