In my room, I sit alone in this cold dimly lit room. The skies are grey and there is noise coming from down the hallway of news reporters talking, and yet it’s very quiet and still. As I sit there I begin to think of what there is to come next, worried about how long this quarantine will last. I glance at my bed, it has a melancholic feel to it. A feeling that makes me uneasy knowing that I have to spend most of my time trapped in this small apartment room. I take a look outside to see if there is anything to look at to get my mind busy instead of worrying. Instead, it makes it worse. The sky isn’t as blue as it used to be, this quarantine was supposed to be over and yet the time just keeps extending. To my right I see this small bright red box on my desk, it’s a deck of playing cards. Bored out of my mind I pick the box up and open them. The feel of the cards was satisfying as they smoothly glided across my hand as I looked at every suite in the deck. The smell too had this new book type of smell which was also gratifying.

 

I soon sought the cards as my escape from the harsh reality, I had family members living with me but we barely did talk since we were all just worried. So I spent most of my days handling cards learning how to use them in different ways. I learned how to spring the cards at first which took me a bit but once I got the hang of learning card tricks, it became exponentially easier with every move. I remember just focusing on what to learn next every day. My left and right hand would be aching from bending my hands in intricate ways that I wasn’t used to. And before I knew it I built a decent sleight of hand skill. Learning became easier for me when I understood the fact that you need to put time and effort into it. From there I really wanted to learn anything and everything. I began reading more books on sleight of hand, I even tried teaching myself to code however recently I haven’t found the time for it. And till this day I view this learning curve differently, I’m keener to learn than I used to.