.‘Failure is fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts’, says
Winston Churchill. Failure is indeed a stepping stone to success.
The young seagull’s story teaches us this. Prepare a write up
highlighting this view, based on your reading of the story ‘His
First Flight”.
Answers
"Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts."
- Winston Churchill
The statement is relevant to the seagull's story. It so happens that every superhero has "a weakness, something that they have to overcome, through an extraordinary act of courage" - Young Sheldon.
The story 'His First Flight' revolves around failure and success, bad times and good times. The seagull was afraid to fly, afraid that his wings would fail him, afraid that he would fall, afraid of the tremendous sea stretching endlessly beneath him. His parents denied him food as his punishment. But the seagull, out of fear, would not, did not attempt to fly.
When we are staring failure in the face, we decide to give up. The question of 'how' turns into a question of 'whether'. We consider ourselves defeated. But, people, without failure, there would be no success. There are some twists and turns everyone has to deal with.
The seagull was starving. But his chance to overcome his fear of flying had come as a fish, in his mother's beak. He was desperate to eat it, to satisfy his hunger. And lo, he leaped forward in the direction of the fish, forgetting that he was a scaredy-cat when it came to flying. Panic seized him. He was going to fall.
But no, he did not. His wings went up, down, up, down, in a rhythmic flapping. He was flying. FLYING!
And that teaches us: a pillar of success, failure is. The best way to learn from our mistakes, failure is. If there's something I've learned from a million mistakes, it is better than no attempt. Failure is not the worst thing that could ever happen to us. Mistakes need to be identified and rectified.
If I fail, I try again, and again, and again. What about you?