I was first introduced to the Rubik's Cube as a child. Back then, I thought the prospect of solving it to be an impossible task. I eventually pulled all of the stickers off and rearranged them so that the cube was "solved." It wasn't until my one-year study abroad in Japan that I finally learned that solving the cube had potential to be easy.
A friend demonstrated how to solve one side of the cube. It began to make sense, and soon, I could do it too. Encouraged from this accomplishment and determined to solve the whole cube, I researched it the internet. I found a nine-page tutorial listing all of the needed algorithms and proceeded to devote the next three days of my life to memorizing every one. And I did. In fact, I practiced it so much that, within a month, I was able to solve it in under a minute.
Some may say that I cheated: I looked up instructions and used a list of algorithms to decipher the cube. But I learned a valuable life lesson from this experience, being that I can achieve anything that I set my mind to. I learned to look at the challenges in my life in a new light, and recognize that there is always a method in which to hurdle over barriers. There is a science to everything, and if I don't understand something, it's because I haven't looked at all the pieces.
Above all, the Rubik's Cube taught me that nothing is impossible, and it's with that mindset that I expect to fulfill my dreams.