It’s a small world after all

Ryl Walters likes music and is learning to play two instruments. PHOTO BY MARK LYNDERSAY
Ryl Walters likes music and is learning to play two instruments. PHOTO BY MARK LYNDERSAY

AS TOLD TO BC PIRES (WITH HELP FROM MUMMY, AVION WALTERS)

My name is Ryel Walters and, wherever I go, I’m the smallest boy whenever I get there.

I’m five years old. (But I’m a small five, because my mummy says I was a preemie.)

(
I was an eight-month baby. My mummy was told it would take two years for me to catch up to other children. But, surprisingly, I was well going in line with all the others in pre-school.)

(
I graduated as the top student in my pre-school. So my mummy realised her boy was really doing well.)

I play football in the Savannah. It’s a short walk for me on a Saturday the Savannah. (Because I live right there in Belmont.)

I don’t have a Premiership team I want to play for. Not as yet. Maybe as I get older.

(Football started off as just a way of getting me out to socialise with other children but my pre-school coach told my mummy I had some potential in football and basketball.)

I like football more than any other sport. The best part is kicking the ball.

I have a position I like to play. But I don’t know what it is. It could be striker.

I go to Moulton Hall Methodist Primary School. My favourite subject is mathematics.

I have lots and lots of sisters like Micah.

(I don’t really have a lot of sisters, just cousins I treasure as my sisters. I’m really an only child.)

I started playing football this year. (Since just before Carnival, so you could say roughly seven months now.)

I hardly watch television but, if I do, it’s Discovery Kids. I like anything to do with animals. Elephants. Spiders. Frogs. Any animals.

(My mummy controls how much TV I watch and she tries to get me to do more reading. Nature documentaries, if I get to watch TV at all.)

I have tests coming up in school so I have to study. This morning I was studying Spanish. (So maybe I could talk to Venezuelans.)

I like music as well and I am learning to play two instruments. One is piano. (My mummy says I more do the steelpan, but if you give me any instrument to try, I could make a note.)

(My mummy asked my pre-school teacher to start me on music theory because I like music so much and my mummy thinks I have potential in music. So my teacher, who was already teaching me practical, started teaching me theory. And my mummy says I am doing well.)

(My mummy was very surprised but my teacher said he was going to prepare me for my grade one music exam! My teacher said I was catching on so quickly, I was even surprising HIM! So my mummy said, “Okay!” She can’t help me much with it but my mummy says I am doing well on my own.)

If I get homework, even in pre-school, I do it.

(My mummy watches me until I finish it but I actually sit there and do it on my own and, if I get anything wrong, it’s my teacher who corrects it, not my mummy.)

Ryel Walters with his mother, Avion Walters.
PHOTO BY MARK LYNDERSAY

(If my mummy sees I’m interested in something, she will let me do it, as time goes along. School is a lot for me to do, just by itself because the syllabus is very heavy. So Saturday football in the Savannah is my balance, just the opportunity to play with the other boys. Don’t mind I’m the smallest in the group, I’m coping.)

I only do football training once a week on a Saturday. After school during the week, I do music. (And you know what Sunday is: church! Sunday School! Maybe some performance for church! I am seriously occupied!)

I will get big one day.

My favourite thing to eat is macaroni. (I go to school with food every day and I come home with that bowl licked clean!)

I don’t know what a Trini is.

I know where Trinidad is and I like it a lot. I don’t want to go anywhere else. Not even Tobago. But I want to go to Walt Disney.

This feature will also appear online on Wednesday at www.BCPires.com

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"It’s a small world after all"

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