The First Flight by Liam O'Flaherty | Motivational Story |

Motivational Story

The First Flight 

                                                                                                        - Liam O'Flaherty

Short Summary:

• ‘His First Flight’ was a short story written by Liam O’Flaherty who was an Irish novelist and short story writer.
• It is a story about the need for Courage and Self-confidence to overcome fears in life. 
• Every journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step. 
• But that Single Step is the most important and difficult one for all us to make. 
• It is about a young seagull which is trying to take its first flight. 
• The young seagull looked down desperately at the vast expanse of sea that stretched down beneath his ledge. 
• He was afraid to take its First Flight. 
• His parents had flown away along with his brothers and his little sister, leaving him alone on the rock Without Food. 
• They could all fly because they believed in the power of wings. But he did not realise his power. 
• So he could not fly. He had tried many times to run forward to the edge of the ledge and flap his wings, but he became afraid. 
• Though his parents had tried numerous times to support him to fly, he thought that his wings would not support him. 
• He was terribly scared. He was starving and felt that he would die if he did not get any food. 
• He saw his mother tearing a Piece of Fish with her beak. 
• When he cried out to her she just screamed back mockingly. The sight of food maddened him. 
• He cried at her but she just screamed back mockingly. 
• Suddenly, he felt the joy, seeing his mother approaching him with food. 
• But she stopped opposite him, keeping the fish just out of his reach. 
• Maddened by hunger, he dived at the fish. 
• But his mother flew upward and he started falling. 
• He was terrified for a moment but then he opened his wings and realized that he was flying. 
• Then he knew the fact that he was born to fly. To the delight and surprise of his entire family, he had made his First Flight.

Famous Travelling Persons:

1. Marco Polo was one of the first and most famous Europeans to travel to Asia during the Middle Ages.He travelled farther than any of his predecessors. 
2. Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonist who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. Columbus discovered the viable sailing route to America.  
3. Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan Muslim scholar and traveller. He was known for his travelling and undertaking excursions called the Rihla. 
4. Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator, and cartographer born in the Republic of Florence. He embarked on his first voyage. 
5. Xuanzang was a Chinese Buddhist monk, who travelled to India in the seventh century and described the interaction between Chinese Buddhism and Indian Buddhism during the early Tang dynasty. Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer. In search of fame and fortune, Ferdinand Magellan set out from Spain in 1519 with a fleet of five ships to discover a western sea route to the Spice Islands. Bartolomeu Diasy was a Portuguese explorer. Dias was the first European during the Age of Discovery to anchor at what is present-day South Africa. 
6. Captain James Cook was a naval captain, navigator and explorer who, in 1770, discovered and charted New Zealand.