The start of my cubing career
Nicholas Grotenhuis
I believe my actual cubing career probably started in fifth grade even though I couldn’t solve a cube. I started trying to solve because my best friend could do it. That is the short answer at least.
My “touching a Rubik’s cube” career probably dates back to when the first Rubik’s cube came out and my brother got it for Christmas. My brother made the checkerboard pattern and I It was the coolest thing in the world. He showed me how to create it and I did, every time I could get my hands on that cube.
When fifth grade began, my best friend Eric brought his brand new, Stickerless, Dayan Zhanchi to class and started playing around with it. I asked him if I could use it and he said yes! He let me play with it and I made a checkerboard. It looked extremely awesome on a stickerless cube. But Eric wasn’t that impressed. Later that day I timed him during lunch and he solved his cube in one minute. It was insane at the time. After school I went to my mom and asked for a Dayan Zhanchi, “just like Eric’s”. She was clueless as to what that was. I explained it to her and she said she might get it for me, for Christmas. I was stoked. I could not wait. Unfortunately, the holidays were three months away. I came home from school everyday for the next three months asking if I could receive it earlier. She said no every time. In the meantime at school, I would play with Eric’s cube.
Soon it was Christmas. I woke up on a snowy morning and sprinted downstairs. I searched through my sibling’s gifts and finally found a small box. It had my name on it. Unfortunately again, my parents wouldn’t let me open it until the rest of my family was awake. I thought to myself, I could fix that. I ran around the house, shaking family members awake randomly. I told my mom that everyone was up, so then she said that I could go downstairs and wait for everyone. A couple minutes later everyone was downstairs, and my mom informed us that we could open our gifts. I tore into the cube’s wrapping paper, and pulled out the cube with a victorious smile. I opened the, perfect box and made the checkerboard pattern multiple times. I could barely contain my excitement.
Later that year I found out that my “Zhanchi,” was actually a guhong. I was so upset that I never picked it up again, for the next two years. Eventually I ventured up to my grandparents home, where i discovered they owned a Rubik’s cube. I looked at that thing and decided I was going to solve it. I worked my way through the first layer memorizing as I went along. Then I went through the second layer, again, recording the algorithms with my brain. The third layer was where I struggled however. I eventually grinded that out too. My first, official solve, was after school on the ride home. At this point I am in seventh grade. I was really excited. I couldn’t believe it. I had solved it in under two minutes.
That’s how I got into cubing. It certainly took a while, but I got there. Even though I can solve relatively fast, Eric still rubs it in because he learned how to solve the first hour he had his cube. Man that annoys me.