$1 Cube
Angelo B. Noscal (13, Phillipines)
The first time I encountered the Rubik’s Cube was when I was a little over 6 years old, at that time I was playing chase with my friends when I saw a bespectacled young man playing with a square like toy. I was mesmerized when I saw him solving the cube in under a minute, I couldn’t even begin to imagine how he was able to do that without being some sort of mutant or a robot sent form the future. At that time I remember telling myself that I wanted to be just like him but better, The first thing I did after that incident was I went home and told my parents about the guy who could solve the toy that fats, it turns out the toy was called a Rubik’s cube so I forced my parents to buy me one. The day after that I finally got my first cube, I think the brand of the cube was Dian Sheng so as I got it I immediately did my first turns on the cube. I didn’t have a clue on what I was doing, I was just turning the faces randomly hoping that all the colors would magically align or something but it didn’t so I decided to give up.
I threw that cube away like it was trash I forgot all about the Rubik’s Cube for quite some time until 3rd grade. It became a trend in school, everybody had their own cube and knew how to solve it except me. So I decided to study how to solve a cube, the problem was I didn’t have a cube and I didn’t want to ask for another from my parent because of what happened with my last cube. I was only able to learn to solve one color with the help of my classmates when the cube phenomena faded, gone like it was a bubble floating in the air. I promised to myself that I will never touch a cube again, but then again promises are meant to be broken, so after I graduated from elementary school I stumbled upon a school filled with geniuses that were addicted with the cube. In order to not feel left out I decided to try the cube once more. The funny part was that I was starting enjoy playing with the cube right after my promise of never touching a cube again.
I was able to learn the beginner’s method of solving the cube with the help of YouTube, I was averaging 1 minute when solving with the burrowed cube of my classmate which was a Rubik’s cube 2.0. I was starting to give up once again when I could not improve my 1 minute solves. Then I met Felix Zemdegs on YouTube my favorite cuber. I watched his 4.73 second solve, I was left clueless on how he could solve that fast and by chance I had a classmate who had the same method as him, the method was called Fridrich. It took a whole week in order to get a hang of the Fridrich method. After Ihad a solid grasp do f2l which was a part of the Fridrich method, I was already sub 40. After that I practiced look ahead then 1 look PLL and so on. Now I am sub 20 solver. Cubing now became my inspiration every time I have good grades I am rewarded with another cube. Currently my favourite is still the 3×3 and my main is my $1 cube the Dian Sheng. All of this was because of my $1 cube.