Anthony Galli

Since I was a kid, I have been fascinated by puzzles and patterns. Anything I can fidget with or anything that makes me think mathematically always keeps me engaged. The Rubik’s Cube offers both of those things. My enthusiasm for mathematical puzzles has been with me throughout my life; it has shaped my interests and guided me toward a deeper understanding of logic and problem-solving.

My journey with the Rubik’s Cube began in 2017 when I walked into my 6th-grade math class for the first time. One of the first things I noticed was the mountain of cubes in the back of the class. Intrigued, I immediately approached them and started scrambling with one of them. From then on, I would fiddle with the cubes every day before class, never being able to get close to solving them.

One day, observing my fascination with the cube, my math teacher approached me and offered to give me one of his cubes. As soon as I got home that day, I plopped down on my couch for hours, reading the booklet my teacher gave me, but failing to make any progress. At first, it seemed impossible to solve, but I was never tempted to give up. Within a couple of weeks, I was able to solve the whole thing without any help in about 3 minutes.

However, that was not enough for me. I wanted to become faster. I watched many YouTube tutorials and practiced for hours, making me way faster than I ever expected to be when I started. When I participated in competitions and saw other kids, equally mesmerized by the cube and better than me, it inspired me to try other types of cubes in various sizes and shapes. I only intended to come so far, but just a bit of practice and belief took me even further—it took me to a personal best of 6.59 seconds.

I started with minimal knowledge and slowly worked my way through the challenges of memorizing algorithms and refining my pattern recognition skills to improve. Getting out of my comfort zone was hard, but I eventually achieved what I initially thought was impossible.