001. try

When I was 15, he told me, "there is no try, only do or do not". He wanted me to be better in something that I thought I could only be good at up to a certain point, if that was even considered good at all. It's stuck with me ever since I heard it from him. I suppose it carried such weight because it came from someone who was (and still is) so dedicated to his craft. If you want to be better, you have to do something. You can't just try to do something.

I was out and about in the city area today and I told myself that I should try taking more pictures. I realise that I've been telling myself to try a lot of things lately. Try to write more, try to eat healthier, try to take more pictures, try to exercise, try to be a better daughter, try to be more understanding, try to lessen my sense of entitlement, the list goes on.

Sometimes, we underestimate the power of words. We forget that even when we're not making statements labelled officially as 'promises', we're accountable for what we say or do not say. What a difficult circumstance to be in - this unfortunate reality that we often have no control over what we're held responsible for.

Perhaps we should all start using 'try' only in the past tense - tried. And when we think about the future, about something that we want to do or want to achieve, we instead say, we will. That's more definite. And if we do fail, we then say, "I tried." Semantics. Self-fulfilling prophecy. It might not get us all the way, but who knows - if you give it a chance, it might get you far enough.