khatanbuuveibold
Dec 30, 2016
Undergraduate / Overcoming obstacles like Allan Iverson. Personal Statement - Person of influence - NBA Star [3]
@Holt
Thanks for the reply.
Do you think this essay works better?
"You're getting all the girls with that thing, aren't you?" said Mr. Mike, our Economics teacher.
Of course he was being sarcastic, because "that thing" was a 3x3x3 Rubik's cube, the definitive nerdy plaything, and I was feverishly solving the puzzle, as if my life depended on it.
Now that I think about it, maybe my life really does depend on solving the cube.
It was a calm summer morning in 2010, when I found a Rubik's cube lying scrambled on the living room table. Not giving any thought as to whose it was or how it got there, I enthusiastically grabbed the cube. I twisted the faces in every direction possible, hoping to complete at least one of the six faces, until I realized no amount of randomly twisting and turning will magically do the trick.
For the next few days, my 10 year old mind could scarcely think about anything but the seemingly impossible image of the cube being completely solved. Everywhere I went, I had the cube in my hands. It didn't take too long for my father to notice the situation.
"Son, are you not going to put that down?"
"I want to learn how to solve this thing, dad. You can do it, right? Can you teach me?"
After persistent persuasion, my father reluctantly agreed to teach me. The education process took two long days, but it wasn't at all what I expected. Turns out, all you need to do is memorize a few moves, and execute them over and over again, and ta-da! The cube is solved. The solution was very simple, almost disappointingly so.
I now know how to solve one of the most famous puzzles in the world, but what now? At this point, simply solving the cube wasn't enough. My pompous curiosity demanded a new challenge. I had to solve the puzzle as fast I possibly can.
I opened up YouTube, and searched "rubix cube fast". Among the results, a video by Yu Nakajima, simply titled: "Rubik's cube: 6.57 seconds" immediately grabbed my attention. Sure enough, he solved the cube in exactly 6.57 seconds. I couldn't believe it. In fact, I didn't want to believe it - this random guy was light-years ahead of me. I closed the laptop, and grabbed the cube.
In the next few weeks, I broke the 1 minute barrier. After buying a brand new cube, I reduced my time to 40 seconds. However, as time went on, the improvement was less and less clear. Over the next five years, I took on many challenges, such as debate, physics, computer programming and artificial intelligence, but everywhere I went, I made sure to keep the cube in my backpack.
Fast forward to 11th grade. I had barely improved my average in 2 years, but I decided to pick up the cube, just to time myself one more time.
I pull out my brand new cube from my backpack, my phone from my pocket, and start the stopwatch. My fiery fingers grab the puzzle, as my classmates observe in fascination. I stop the watch.
Beep.
13.76 seconds. My best time yet. I was as surprised as the spectators.
Somehow, I was only 7 seconds away from reaching the time that had me in complete disbelief five years ago.
Among other things, the Rubik's cube has taught me that I can accomplish any goal I set my mind to. Whatever I'm doing, if I feel like throwing up my hands, I only need to look at this little piece of plastic.
@Holt
Thanks for the reply.
Do you think this essay works better?
"You're getting all the girls with that thing, aren't you?" said Mr. Mike, our Economics teacher.
Of course he was being sarcastic, because "that thing" was a 3x3x3 Rubik's cube, the definitive nerdy plaything, and I was feverishly solving the puzzle, as if my life depended on it.
Now that I think about it, maybe my life really does depend on solving the cube.
It was a calm summer morning in 2010, when I found a Rubik's cube lying scrambled on the living room table. Not giving any thought as to whose it was or how it got there, I enthusiastically grabbed the cube. I twisted the faces in every direction possible, hoping to complete at least one of the six faces, until I realized no amount of randomly twisting and turning will magically do the trick.
For the next few days, my 10 year old mind could scarcely think about anything but the seemingly impossible image of the cube being completely solved. Everywhere I went, I had the cube in my hands. It didn't take too long for my father to notice the situation.
"Son, are you not going to put that down?"
"I want to learn how to solve this thing, dad. You can do it, right? Can you teach me?"
After persistent persuasion, my father reluctantly agreed to teach me. The education process took two long days, but it wasn't at all what I expected. Turns out, all you need to do is memorize a few moves, and execute them over and over again, and ta-da! The cube is solved. The solution was very simple, almost disappointingly so.
I now know how to solve one of the most famous puzzles in the world, but what now? At this point, simply solving the cube wasn't enough. My pompous curiosity demanded a new challenge. I had to solve the puzzle as fast I possibly can.
I opened up YouTube, and searched "rubix cube fast". Among the results, a video by Yu Nakajima, simply titled: "Rubik's cube: 6.57 seconds" immediately grabbed my attention. Sure enough, he solved the cube in exactly 6.57 seconds. I couldn't believe it. In fact, I didn't want to believe it - this random guy was light-years ahead of me. I closed the laptop, and grabbed the cube.
In the next few weeks, I broke the 1 minute barrier. After buying a brand new cube, I reduced my time to 40 seconds. However, as time went on, the improvement was less and less clear. Over the next five years, I took on many challenges, such as debate, physics, computer programming and artificial intelligence, but everywhere I went, I made sure to keep the cube in my backpack.
Fast forward to 11th grade. I had barely improved my average in 2 years, but I decided to pick up the cube, just to time myself one more time.
I pull out my brand new cube from my backpack, my phone from my pocket, and start the stopwatch. My fiery fingers grab the puzzle, as my classmates observe in fascination. I stop the watch.
Beep.
13.76 seconds. My best time yet. I was as surprised as the spectators.
Somehow, I was only 7 seconds away from reaching the time that had me in complete disbelief five years ago.
Among other things, the Rubik's cube has taught me that I can accomplish any goal I set my mind to. Whatever I'm doing, if I feel like throwing up my hands, I only need to look at this little piece of plastic.