His First Flight
'His First Flight' by Liam O'Flaherty is a fable about a young seagull who is too scared to take the plunge that every fledgling has to, in order to learn how to fly. He is afraid that his wings are not strong enough to support his weight. He lacks confidence in himself. He feels he is safe on the ledge and doesn't want to take the risk. It is only when he jumps that he comes to know that flying came to him naturally - it was in his blood. He relishes the accomplishment of flying.
We too feel a similar insecurity, nervousness, hesitation, fear, when we are about to embark upon any new venture. We doubt our potential. Sometimes we are too lazy to take that important first step. We worry about what people would think if we failed. The longer we wait, the more impossible it begins to seem. The first step is always the hardest.
Nelson Mandela said “I learned that courage
was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is
not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
In the comments section, share your own experience (in about 100 words) of a similar triumph over fear. You don't have to be a student of our class. EVERYONE is welcome to participate!
While Learning Bicycle I Fell and Broke my left hand.
ReplyDeleteMy first experience with cooking
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young, the kitchen had an invisible 'stop' sign put there by my mom. “No, you cannot enter here!” she always told me. Well, I don’t really blame her as it isn’t a place for kids. But this lockdown period has changed everyone’s life and mine is not an exception. I slowly grew interested in cooking and tried to experiment with a few dishes. And here the disaster begins! The more I pretended to be an efficient chef the more the mess I created. While trying to chop the onions pristinely I cut my finger twice. The job of slicing the tomatoes was more of splashing the walls. Kneading the dough is another great story. Till date I can’t understand ratio between water and flour. I sometimes wonder that it can violate the theory of relativity too! Never mind, I am still trying my level best since mom always suggests that fear can’t be overcome until and unless you give it a try.
-Koshika
Oh, I can recall many things that I fear (or "doubt" maybe). But there’s one experience that I can tell- some of you might relate with it :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I joined Shishukunj in ninth grade, I was scared. Yes- it might be my nervousness, or just the load of completing my pending work that bubbled up into "fear"... But I felt incapable of handling a change in my environment.
It was when I decided to actually go, talk, laugh, and make as many possible friends that I found that this place could become one of my favourites. After all, we share the same globe so that we can interact!
Well, if I talk about myself, my greatest fear had been skating. And with my luck my mother put me right in the center of a skating. This all had started when my mother and I were standing in the balcony and staring at nothing, then from the road below some children, with skates on, raced past. That gave my mother the idea. Well I don't disobey my mother much but I refused the class, the reason was that I couldn't come to trust a steel pad with four wheels and some ropes and ribbons to tie around (skates). But what I learnt about my mother is that she never ever gives up to me. So that is why I found myself in a skating rink wearing those strange skates with strange kids around me who were skating, all I could think of was that when I fall, which bone would I break. But the coach there topd me just one thing; to keep my arms always straight and leveled to my shoulders. It worked perfectly and I kind of got the hang of it. Afterwards I got so interested in skating that I went through different kind of skates, even learned Quard skates!!
ReplyDeleteI believe that everyone has a fear deep inside that they don't want to admit. For me, it was trying something new. I was always scared that I was not going to like it ,or it will be a bad experience or that I was going to get hurt. I always stayed inside the small comfort zone. But then I realised that without venturing out, I would not be able to experience the beauty and the curse of life. It is the hardships that make the beautiful moments even more precious. Of course I might get hurt or I might have one exciting journey. But that only makes life even more mysterious.
ReplyDelete