Why I Started Cubing
John Dahl (14, USA)
I started cubing because my older brother had an old cube and my little brother bought a new one. I thought that being able to solve one of them would be a cool skill to gain, so I bought my own. Instead of using Youtube and watching videos, I just went and bought a Rubik’s brand. Now I understand why people complain about Rubik’s brand.
I decided to start cubing because one of my good friends had a couple of cubes. When I started to learn how to solve the cube I felt great! I also thought it cool that I could bond stronger with that friend with this new talent I have. We could bond by learning new algorithms together and competing.
At this point I was not cubing as much as I would have liked to, but I had a start. I started branching out by getting a 4×4. I felt a large inclination to learn to solve a 4×4 because it was a birthday present and it is fun to learn new puzzles. It was pretty easy to transition from the Rubik’s cube to the 4×4. The only thing that was added was block building, which was not too hard of a concept to grasp. The hardest thing to memorize was the parities, which were a real pain.
The reason I learned to solve the unsolvable puzzle is because I feel good after learning something. In this case I felt good for a while after I first learned to solve a cube. This good feeling happened the first couple solves because I was surprising myself with my skill. I gained a craving for the feeling, hence I bought the 4×4.
These are all of the reasons that I chose to memorize the unsolvable puzzle.