Josh Demetri does not waste a second of his day doing something he does not enjoy. He can engage people in his unique hobbies like yo-yoing and origami.

Demetri, freshman, became interested in yo-yoing at a Boy Scout camp the summer of 2011. He watched his scout master, Mark Seibel, pull out a yo-yo and do tricks, and he caught on from there as he took the simple skills he knew and started to learn more technique.

“There was a cheap yo-yo at the trading post, and I bought it and started fiddling around with it,” Demetri said. “When I got home I bought a better yo-yo and learned some tricks.”

Demetri learns most of his craft from YouTube and a company called “Yo-yo Play” that makes videos on how to do a variety of techniques. He practices about an hour when he has spare time, but Demetri does it for personal enjoyment rather than competition.

“It’s something that takes skill and practice but it is simple enough to still be fun,” Demetri said. “The challenge of learning new tricks makes it enjoyable and makes it satisfying to complete.”

Demetri has collected 12 yo-yo, each with different qualities. Some are metal or plastic while others have wheels on the side for holding on his finger. Each one is used for a different technique such as spinning or landing on the string.

“He can do amazing tricks with the yo-yo, and I love it because it’s kind of a throwback for me,” Peggy Demetri, Josh’s mother, said. “It’s this old fashioned simple toy in an age of all kinds of technology, and then all of the sudden this kid will just pull out a yo-yo and have fun doing something simple.”

Another one of Demetri’s hobbies is making origami figurines. His second grade teacher gave him a book on how to make origami because she thought he would find it interesting. The first origami he made was a crane, and since then he has been keen in learning how to make more. He uses the book from his second grade teacher, books from the library and watches YouTube videos when he wants to make a new design.

“When I think of talent, I think of Josh Demetri,” Elisa Fernandez, Josh’s youth leader, said. “That’s how talented the man is. His epic skill in the act of the yo-yo and origami crafting is by far one of the best I have ever seen.”