- Carlington Wilmot photos
At right, Nicholene with Mum, Faith Palmer. At left, Nicholene and some of her teammates representing Jamaica at the CARIFTA games.
Avia Ustanny, Freelance Reporter
IF YOU were watching the synchronised swimmers during the last CARIFTA games you may have seen Nicholene Bryan doing her partnered duet to the tune 'Hot Cross Buns'.
The nine-year-old, who loves "synchro swimming" the most out of all the many extracurricular activities she does, would not mind doing this every day and all day. She loves to swim and "I love to dance," she told Outlook, with a smile of mega-wattage.
Synchronised swimming, a combination of music and swimming is, as far as she is concerned, a marriage made in heaven. Nicholene is a member of the Tornado Synchronised Swimming Club and also plays the violin, the piano, the recorder and sings on her church and school choirs.
She is also a member of the track team at school and the Brownie pack, as well as K-Kids the baby group of the Kiwanis.
She does all of this while maintaining an average of mostly 90 per cent at Quest preparatory school where she is in fourth grade.
Nicholene tells Outlook, "The violin is not really easy. You have to be very disciplined. You have to practise a lot. You have to stand up straight."
For us, she demonstrates the proper stance and finger position. The violin, she then confesses, is not her favourite instrument. Right now, she is dreaming about the flute.
"It (the flute) sounds very good and the music is very nice . You can play all sorts of stuff."
Life should just be all about music and dancing, but Nicholene states that she plans to become, not a musician, but a paediatrician. "I love kids," she explains.
Faith Palmer, her mother, says that her daughter does love babies. As far as parenting is concerning, the mother says that she tries to encourage her in all things. She knows when Nicholene needs to rest too, and from time to time will call "time out".
"You have to know your child and know what she can accomplish."
On her violin, Nicholene strums a passage of Bach's Minute 2, her eyes almost closed in concentration. Nicholene also plays the violin in the church ensemble at Bethel Baptist church where she is, additionally, a member of the junior dance troupe.
The 9-year-old is easily busier than the average Jamaican adult who goes from home to work and does nothing else. As far as Mom Faith Palmer is concerned, she is preparing her for life.
To Faith Palmer, she is giving her only daughter the ability to explore her options so that when she becomes an adult and begins to make her own decisions, she will make the right choices.
"You try to expose them to as many things as they can cope with. Later on, they will choose."
Ms. Palmer tells Outlook that it is not about making her child into a star, into someone who is 'better than the rest'. It is about becoming all that she can be.
She tells us that Nicholene started learning the violin at age six years, going to classes with Moya Gibson who is a teacher of the Suzuki method. During this time she also started learning the piano. Later, swimming was added to these extracurricular activities.
The going was not always smooth. At one time, the mother recalls, Nicholene became afraid of the deep end in the swimming pool and would cry and even vomit. But, still she wanted to go swimming and her mother allowed her to spend the time watching others and also tried her out with smaller pools.
Nicholene's full-blown love affair with swimming began the summer when she saw youngsters at the Y doing synchronised swimming. She tried out in summer 2000 and has never looked back.
Mother is proud of everything her daughter does. "Nicholene was a good baby and an early walker," she tells us. She had her daughter relatively late in life and says, "the advantage for me in not having a child too early is that you get certain things out of the way. I have a dual career. I am both a trained teacher and administrative assistant. As a mature woman, I think I have handled motherhood better.
"Parenting for me is taking part in all aspects of the child's life," she adds. "Do as much as you can. Encourage them to do the best and be the best. It is challenging but always rewarding."
The number of activities in which Nicholene is engaged from day to day, she says, is also a source of discipline. To other parents, she also points out, "when children are busy, they do not get into a lot of trouble."
Meanwhile, it is true that the cost of Nicholene's extra-curricular activities, which is almost the same amount as her costly school fees, represent a great sacrifice for the mother. Faith Palmer says, "for me, it represents money well spent."
She sees her daughter's self-esteem growing and says she knows that Nicholene is learning the time and self-management skills which will stand her in good stead when she becomes an adult.
She is satisfied.
