Every morning before class, sophomore Nate Pomegas is in the same place: the cafeteria, underneath one of the TVs that shows daily announcements. He is surrounded by a group of friends; some are wrapped up in their own conversations and others watch him while he performs.

Pomegas is a magician. He has been ever since one fateful day last summer when his friend, sophomore Erik Mitchell, started doing magic and got him interested. The details of that day are fuzzy to Pomegas, and it seemed to him like Mitchell started doing magic tricks out of nowhere.

“He just started doing it and I’m like, ‘Okay, teach me,’” said Pomegas.

Mitchell cannot tell Pomegas or anyone else why he took an interest in magic. He is simply unable to explain it, but is glad he decided to pick it up. He noticed that Nate seemed interested when he was performing tricks and got his friend in on the magic.

“I asked if he wanted to be taught,” said Mitchell. “I taught him and helped him practice.”

The first trick Pomegas learned was a counting card trick so simple that it was nearly impossible to mess up. He mastered the simple tricks and moved on to harder things. He and Mitchell worked their hardest to get where they are today.

Performing a trick for the first time in front of someone else is always nerve-wracking, especially if the person is someone Pomegas doesn’t know. He is always afraid that he will mess up, but all that practicing has not gone to waste and he is confident after the first trick.

No matter how good Pomegas gets, he can always get better and he has several people that inspire him to improve.  One, of course, is Mitchell, the one who got him started on magic. The other is famous magician Jarek 120.

“I got a lot of card tricks from him,” Pomegas said. “Also, he’s one of those inspirational stories.”

Not everyone in Pomegas’s life is supportive of his talents, however. His parents disapprove and tried to get him to stop, causing him to refrain from telling them that he still does magic. To this day, Pomegas is unaware of why his parents are so strongly opposed to his hobby, but he will not let them or anyone else stop him from doing what makes him happy.

To him, the whole reason he loves magic so much is because it’s different. It is not every day that you see a person with a pack of cards in their hands that can make something brilliant out of it. Magic is special and should be kept that way. It also should not be kept in the dark.

Pomegas enjoys showing off his tricks to as many people as he can because he doesn’t see the point in keeping his talents to himself. Talents are useless unless they are practiced to perfection and shown to the world, and that is exactly what Pomegas is doing with his.

He enjoys sharing his talents, but to an extent. He will teach a simple trick or two to the curious observer, but nothing more than that. If he taught all of his complex tricks, then everyone would know the secret and magic would not be worth doing any more.

Magic leaves an impression. Anyone who has witnessed Pomegas’s tricks would agree with that. Magic has left an impression on Pomegas as well. He has more self-confidence now than he ever did before, and he has magic to thank for it.

According to Pomegas, most people who do not know him refer to him as “the Asian kid who does magic,” but it does not bother him. Labels do not matter to him. His legacy at Huntley will hopefully continue into his future.