Columnist 'masters' new skill

I’m not exactly an expert on many things. I’m not actually an expert at pretty much anything. To this day, my intense adequacy has been perhaps the most personally frustrating detail about my life, but my lack of a genius is not for want of effort.

I’ve tried many different activities in my life. In fact, a comprehensive list of my attempted skills could go on for days, but almost every item would have the one thing in common.

I was okay at it; a decent musician, a mediocre athlete, a just so-so artist, etc. It may be the perfectionist in me, but no matter how good I have ever been at an activity, I’ve never felt like it was good enough.

So when “Ice Storm 2010: Snowacalpyse,” hit the city with determined force, I decided to finally master something.

But what could I master in a 4-day weekend?

Enter the Rubik’s cube I have been stressing and obsessing over for the past three months. Through careful and meticulous work, I had been able to solve all but two little squares. However, this feat took quite a while to achieve, and in frustration, I took a break from my cube.

I barely touched it over winter break and had avoided it most of January as well, but no more. When “Snoacalypse” hit, I spent some serious time playing with my cube, testing algorithms, and mostly just hoping something would make sense.

At long last, I had a solved Rubik’s cube sitting on my table.

I’m almost ashamed of how accomplished I felt in that moment, but it really was something special to me. I didn’t give up, and though it took much longer than I would care to admit, I solved a Rubik’s cube. And then I solved it again. And again.

Maybe I’ll never write like Ayn Rand or paint like Monet, but maybe, just maybe that’s okay.

I’m not saying solving a Rubik’s cube is any major contribution to society, but it’s something to me at least.

Now on to the next challenge.