New Students

There is a beautiful feeling that spreads with the efforts of expanding your knowledge. Truly, nothing settles my worries as much as finding a new student and showing them how easily they can overcome their own obstacles.

Here, the gulls are much like my own Flock once was. The seagulls shun the small group who spend their time taking to the sky. They ignore them and mock them. Isolated, these young students have found one another and spend their time testing limits and stretching higher into the horizon than I ever did while still living beside the Flock.

I introduced myself. Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The name meant nothing to them, and this pleased me. I am a stranger in their land. This makes me unique, an outsider just like them. Therefore they did not hesitate to follow me up into the clouds and bend their wings with me. We flew together for hours before finding rest on the shore. They had a million questions, all of which I tried to answer.

"Who are you?"
Jonathan.
"Where do you come from?"
Many places. Originally a Flock, just like yours.
"Where did you learn to fly like that?"
Many failed attempts have led me to where I am now. I practiced wherever I was able to call home. I tried and tried and tried.
"Can you teach us?"
I would do nothing else.

It feels wonderful to be teaching new students again. They are eager to learn and desperate for knowledge. I know their elders have spotted the lot of us gathering together and flying out to the sea. I know they don't approve of my presence, and so soon I will introduce myself to them. I am hopeful because I have a large group of students to begin with, and I feel their influence will be a great help in spreading the knowledge of flight to the others.

My favorite student right now is Rebecca Gull. She is strong willed and curious, and I feel she is the one that helped lead the others into their passions for flight. She shows remarkable strengths in her flying, and when the time comes for me to move on yet again, I will leave the responsibility of instructor to her.

Oh, it feels so great to share my joys with these young birds! There is nothing as breath taking as seeing a gull's eyes light up as you show him something he never imagined as possible. I think it is in days like today that my entire life finds meaning. I will stretch my wings out wide tonight and I will take to the sky with joy. Tomorrow I will introduce myself to the elders and offer lessons to anything seagull interested. I know there will not be many at first, but I also know that it is impossible to resist the love for flying that is bred into the heart of every bird. We are made to fly and to break limits. We are made to float, to dive, to soar. We are seagulls.