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Martine
de Gannes…passionate about life.
photos:keith matthews
By
Shari John
Move over Dr Phil, there’s a new know-it-all on life
and living in town, and she’s only 17 years old.
Surely, any average person listening to Martine de Gannes
speak would think, ‘no way, life could never be that
easy’.
But, it seems it is, and she knows the secret. Too bad,
however, because she’s not telling. “I like to
live, I hate being bored” she emphasized.
The fun loving golfer has been playing for only five years
now and already she’s racked up quite the resume for
herself.
Just this year, she captained the junior national golf team
to victory in the Caribbean Amateur Junior Golf Championships
held in Antigua. “Captaining my country was the most
memorable experience that I’ve ever had playing golf,
because it’s one thing to represent your country, but
it’s another when you’re given the opportunity
to lead a whole team of people to victory in a sport that
you love. And we won so it was really special.”
The optimist started playing the game at the age of 12.
“I always knew I was going to play golf, because my
dad always said that one day we’ll play golf, so after
SEA (Secondary Entrance Assessment), we just started. If
I wanted to pursue something else, he would have supported
me, but this is what I like, so this is what I do. Golf
is interesting because it presents a new challenge everyday.”
And what she likes to do dominates the decisions she makes
to a large extent. “I live life by the day, or week,
or whatever, it all depends on the situation.” She
now attends Maple Leaf, where she’s doing an extra
semester before heading off to Pepperdine University in
Malibu on a Golf Scholarship. “I’m really looking
forward to going to school away, because it’s a way
of finding myself, you know, being away from family, friends.”
Having had her fair share of ‘school hopping’,
after doing the SEA exam, she passed for Holy Name Convent,
where she spent a year before moving to St Joseph’s
Convent. “I enjoyed Holy Name but my family went to
St Joseph’s for three generations before.” She
finally settled at Maple Leaf. “I enjoyed all the schools
for different reasons. Holy Name was very family oriented
and there’s a lot less division within the school and
St Joseph’s is more academic. They concentrate more
on their academics. Maple Leaf on the other hand is great,
because they offer a lot of flexibility to athletes, especially
when it comes to travelling because they allow you to miss
more school and you can reschedule your classes and exams
a lot easier.”
Quite the scholar, she obtained eight O’level passes,
in Add Math, English, Mathematics, Literature, Biology,
Chemistry, Physics and Spanish and was quite open in stating:
“I don’t do homework, I think it’s over rated.
If I have to hand it up, then I’ll do it, but other
than that I don’t do homework, and my teachers know
that.”
She now plans on doing advertising, a weird decision she
admitted, but rationalized, “I know that that combination
usually leads into something like medicine or engineering,
but I hate blood, I hate cuts and that kind of stuff. The
idea of messing with someone’s body doesn’t appeal
to me, and engineering is too hard, but advertising just
looks like a lot of fun, so ‘I’m going to do it.”
While she admitted that she isn’t quite sure what she
wants to do for the rest of her life, she explained, “I
don’t know what I want to do with my life right now,
I’m only 17. I’ll figure it out in the next five
years. American schools allow you two years to decide your
major so I think I have time.”
The shy athlete explained that she likes the idea of university.
“You get to get away, you can go out, go to school,
no parents, that’s how you find yourself, you get away
from your comfort zone.”
Apart from golf and school, she leads the life of any normal
teenager. “I love my friends. I spend as much time
as I can with them and they’re very understanding to
the fact that I have to travel so often.”
She also boasted of her ability to whip up a tasty batch
of blondies (white brownies). “I can’t really
cook, but I can bake really well, I make great blondies,
my friends say so anyway, whenever we have anything like
a get together, they always beg me to make them.”
Quite contented with just being herself, even as a national
athlete, she shared that, change is not necessary and she
accepts herself as she is. “I don’t think that
you should ever have to change your personality, if someone
says something about me, that’s not true, then that’s
their perception, people see people however they want.”
She may not have any specific plans for the next five years,
but looks forward to getting married and settling down.
“One of the things I want for myself is to have a family
by the time I’m 35 and I want at least three children.
I don’t want to have an only child because I have siblings
and I want my children to have siblings too.”
The baby in the family, de Gannes has one sibling, an older
brother, Phillip.
An encounter with Martine will have anyone renew their general
outlook on life. “You can make life easy, just move
on and have fun, whoever said you can’t have fun everyday.
I just want to live my life how I want to live my life.
I do what I want and I have no problem doing what I want.
I don’t think that I should live how people think I
should live.”
Her laid back attitude has kept her passion for golf strong
as she explained: “I train every day, but I’ve
never thought about quitting, because I don’t think
I’m perfect and there’s always something that
I can work on.”
And, as a female golfer she explained: “Playing golf
as a female has it’s many advantages, for example while
the boys may have more tournaments, it’s much easier
for a female to get a scholarship so we have different opportunities”
Well, passionate about living would have done it, as, that’s
all that really needs to be said about Martine de Gannes,
the world is her playground and the possibilities are endless.
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