Christine Chang Photography Blog » Recent work, Photo Tips, & Random Rants by Christine Chang.

Growing up, my mom would always be hard on my sister and I in terms of anything we did.  It wasn’t always easy to hear what she had to say, but through the years I came to understand her message loud and clear:  Always try your best.

A lot of times when we would come home with report cards, she would say “A-?  Why not A+? (literally).”  It wasn’t about an A- not being good enough, but it was her way of saying well did you try your best?  We had a conversation about this recently and I can laugh now looking back at it.  I said, “Hey Ma, remember when…?.”  She said she would make comments like that because she didn’t see us study much, at least not like her generation studied when they grew up.

She was right.  Although an A- isn’t a bad grade by any means, I honestly didn’t try my best.  I could have gotten an A or A+ if I really wanted to (with some classes . . . classes like Physics are a whole ‘nother story).

Always try your best.  These are words I make a strong effort to live by.  You can’t always control the outcome of situations, however, the things you choose to do and how you do them are ultimately the things that define you.

If you put 100% into your work, your marriage, your family, or ANYTHING you do, you will be one happy person.  Is it still possible that you struggle with money, things don’t work out with your partner, or your family continues to do the things that drive you nuts?  Absolutely.  It is very possible.  However, trying your best makes possible for a lot of fantastic things to happen in your life, and you will feel wonderful about the one thing you do have control over: YOURSELF and how you perform/deal with things.

If you try your best, you will have no regrets.  If you put 100% into a relationship and it didn’t work out, you’ll be at peace knowing that you did everything you could.  That person wasn’t right for you but there is comfort in knowing that in order to make possible having the relationship of your dreams, that is exactly what you have to do.  You have to put out your best.

And although you can’t control the outcome of things, on the contrary, when you try your best, you tend to become this giant MAGNET.  Often times, what goes hand-in-hand with trying your best is authenticity.  People take notice.  When I was fifteen I worked at Macy’s in the gift wrap department.  Sometimes I would hear people in line whisper, “I want her to do the wrapping,” and then point to me.  I don’t think I’m the best gift wrapper but what I think they saw, was that compared to the others working next to me, I tried my best to be efficient and do a good job.  Nowadays I still try and continue that same work ethic.  What makes it even easier is that photography is something I am truly passionate about!  I care a lot about my art, my work, and often spend an absurd amount of hours editing photos to make sure they are perfect (in my eyes).  I can be crazy compulsive but it seems to be doing me some sort of good.  Shrug.

I could give a hundred other examples like why I drive across town to get my car washed, but I’ll refrain from making this too repetitive and wordy (sometimes I just like to talk/type and now is one of those times).  If you want to share a story or want to hear me blabber on more, feel free to email me or leave it in the comment section below.