Nikki’s answered prayer

Don’t let her frail, sweet looks deceive you one bit. Nikki Bacolod is made of sterner stuff than you would care to think.

She has been pushing herself to the limit way back when she was still in her bobby socks. She’d wake up at 4:30 a.m., train for a swimming competition from 5 to 7 a.m. and get ready for school.

As she grew up and swimming tilts became things of the past, Nikki lightened up a bit. But her schedule was still no means normal for a teenager like her.

"I’d rise at 5 a.m., exercise for 30 minutes, bathe, dress up, review assignments, then dash for school at a little past seven," she reveals.

Little did Nikki know she will be forever grateful for the discipline her childhood routine gave her. Two years ago, doctors broke a piece of bad news to Nikki and her family: she has hypoparathyrodism. The disease, which has been with her since birth, gave her seizure and numbness attacks. In its mildest form, Nikki would feel a ticking, and a twitching of an eye.

She knows when an attack is forthcoming. Nikki would hyperventilate. So she takes long, deep breaths to offset it.

"If it hadn’t been for swimming and my daily intake of eight glasses of milk, I would be a vegetable by now," Nikki says of her illness (one of the causes is lack of calcium, which is abundant in milk).

That’s why, instead of wallowing in self-pity, Nikki counts her blessings. Someone up there has big plans for the 16-year-old singer-host with the sunshiny smile.

She prayed for, and got her wish to have another TV show. This time, it’s Posh, a youth-oriented program airing Saturday afternoons on QTV 11. The show casts Nikki as a naïve but intelligent girl from the province who goes to Manila to pursue a scholarship.

Nikki comes from the province (Iligan), too. She may look like a babe in the woods, but the comparison stops there. Her dreams are far from simple. They drive her to again, push herself to the limit.

An irregular third year high school student in a home study program, Nikki wants to take up a college course that is totally removed from what she’s doing right now.

"The harder it is, the better for me," she explains.

Nikki has narrowed down her choices to three: Business Management, International Studies and Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM).

Oh, so she must be fond of cooking. Wrong. In fact, she doesn’t know how to cook. So why does she want an HRM degree?

"Oh, for the challenge," she answers casually. "I want my brain to work double time. I want to tire myself out. I’m happy that way."

To prove her point, Nikki says she will take up a test in November which will determine if she gets accelerated to fourth year high school or not. If she does, Nikki will enter college earlier than expected.

Her doctor has warned her against getting overexcited, though. He told her that her ailment makes extreme emotions bad for her health.

"That must be why depression gives me a headache," Nikki surmises.

Won’t that get in the way of her acting career?

"I don’t think so," Nikki replies. "I know I’m just playing a role. So it doesn’t hit me that hard."

Real-life heartbreaks and other kinds of emotional pain will, though. But before we feel sorry for Nikki, we must remember she’s one tough cookie who has survived an illness encoded in her DNA thus far.

She’s determined to lick everything – academic hurdles, physical pain, even emotional troubles. The can-do girl tells herself she will make it the way she has put the ravages of hypoparathyrodism at bay.

Nikki has the discipline of an athlete; the drive of a go-getter. She has not allowed the illness to stop her in her tracks. She will never let it defeat her any other day, in any other hour.