basics
biography
Nicole Halford, the would-be Mrs. Bryant, had plenty of dreams growing up. One year, she would want to be a ballerina, prancing around the living room of her parents' Brighton Beach home while humming along to The Nutcracker Suite. Another year, she wanted to be Miss Coney Island, captivated by the rich history of the area when she spent plenty of time at the beach, not only enjoying the waves, but everything the landmark location had to offer. During another, she wanted to rise to the top echelons of society, dreaming of the rich and famous in her youth only to find out that life didn't always work out as well as the dreams imagined in youth.
Her focus on a more glamorous lifestyle that had indeed included runs at the Miss Coney Island crown and attempts to learn ballet and trying to schmooze with the upper classes of the city was brought to an end when she met Tyson Bryant, a man who had just the right walk and just the right talk and just the right moves to turn one night together into an eighteen year commitment - at the very least. By all accounts, considering the home they came to own in Brighton Beach, passed down by Nicole's parents when they passed, and the work they did that kept the family afloat comfortably enough, it wasn't a night regretted even if there was undoubtedly a part of her that wished it had happened differently; and especially not when that eighteen year commitment was personified in a beautiful baby girl.
Born on April 12 of 1992, Nayomi was the spitting image of her mother with the charisma of her father even if there were very few words falling out of her mouth, resigned to light coos and spitting sounds until education took hold and words began to develop and a more appropriate vocabulary came to light from both her parents' teaching and the public education she was resigned to. Had her parents made more, surely they would have paid for private schooling, but it was neither here nor there for Nayomi who was happy to find herself among others her age, easy to make friends and just as easy to fall into trouble when she felt like scuffing up her knees during a game of kick ball or getting her carefully planned outfits, particularly by her mother, dirty when she would have really rather played in the mud than kept clean. Boys, after all, seemed to have all the fun and Nayomi wasn't going to be kept out of that just because she was wearing a pastel pink dress.
As the years grew, so did this adverse attitude to many aspects of being a girl. She didn't want to wear dresses, opting for jeans every chance she could or shorts in the warmer weather. She didn't want to wear her hair up in ornate fashions, happy to get out of bed and simply throw it back into a ponytail so it wouldn't get in her way. She didn't care to act coy or dainty just because it would get her a date to a school dance or make boys like her, apt to believe that when she was actually looking, someone would come around that liked her for who she was and not who she made herself out to be. "Be yourself" was her mantra even if it left her mother with some grief when she wore tattered jeans or cut her hair to unbelievably short lengths, far too boyish to be any sort of ladylike; and while it didn't always make for the best high school encounters, it was safe to say that Nayomi didn't particularly care what others thought of her as long as she felt good about herself.
Thankfully, it wasn't much of a concern as far as grades went and college wasn' at all a struggle beyond the financial toll it would undoubtedly take on her parents. They had saved up, only one child to consider paying tuition for, and Nayomi wasn't without her own resolve to apply to as many scholarships as she could, pulling what she could from those and financial aid. It was easy to save even further by staying in the area, able to stay with her parents during her first year at New York University - which was all she needed to realize that the four year institution wasn't for her. It was too bland, too boring, too stale and the pressure of falling into a major early wasn't something that settled well with her, not in high school and certainly not in college where she had been pusuring Liberal Arts instead of narrowing down her scope of study to something she would have to do the rest of her life lest she wanted to start at the bottom again.
Instead of completing the intention program there, Nayomi dropped out and instead focused her attention on ARROJO Cosmetology School in Tribeca. It was a move her parents weren't fond of, sure that she could have gotten an education that would take her far at a four year university, but it was ultimately Nayomi’s decision and they weren't going to step on the path that she was forging for herself, her mother particularly sure that she would hit a pitfall along the way and she would have her moment to say "I told you so".
Eight months and a Sale Associate position later, Nayomi was graduating from ARROYO Cosmetology and on her way to bigger and brighter things, even if she still kept her day job at Sephora, finding the freelance work far more enjoyable than nailing herself down in a salon. With the money she had managed to save from her position and living the college life of Ramen noodles and anything she could think of to flavor them other than the packets they came with, Nayomi found herself renting her own place in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, a half-hour closer to the work she did and the more fashion-focused center of New York, Manhattan, where she would be able to find more work as well as cut down on her commute.
This has been life since, balancing a normal nine-to-five, full time job with freelance Cosmetology work and those few days that she has off during the week, now living across the street from her best friends and simply enjoying the twists and turns that life gives her.
• Is really rather a geek beneath all of the bright hair and tough exterior, something she is more apt to share with her closest friends than those beyond that circle.
• Enjoys live music, particularly rock n' roll and punk rock, but she isn' without her sway towards hip-hop and r&b, plenty to do with her father's choice of music in jazz and the blues.
Her focus on a more glamorous lifestyle that had indeed included runs at the Miss Coney Island crown and attempts to learn ballet and trying to schmooze with the upper classes of the city was brought to an end when she met Tyson Bryant, a man who had just the right walk and just the right talk and just the right moves to turn one night together into an eighteen year commitment - at the very least. By all accounts, considering the home they came to own in Brighton Beach, passed down by Nicole's parents when they passed, and the work they did that kept the family afloat comfortably enough, it wasn't a night regretted even if there was undoubtedly a part of her that wished it had happened differently; and especially not when that eighteen year commitment was personified in a beautiful baby girl.
Born on April 12 of 1992, Nayomi was the spitting image of her mother with the charisma of her father even if there were very few words falling out of her mouth, resigned to light coos and spitting sounds until education took hold and words began to develop and a more appropriate vocabulary came to light from both her parents' teaching and the public education she was resigned to. Had her parents made more, surely they would have paid for private schooling, but it was neither here nor there for Nayomi who was happy to find herself among others her age, easy to make friends and just as easy to fall into trouble when she felt like scuffing up her knees during a game of kick ball or getting her carefully planned outfits, particularly by her mother, dirty when she would have really rather played in the mud than kept clean. Boys, after all, seemed to have all the fun and Nayomi wasn't going to be kept out of that just because she was wearing a pastel pink dress.
As the years grew, so did this adverse attitude to many aspects of being a girl. She didn't want to wear dresses, opting for jeans every chance she could or shorts in the warmer weather. She didn't want to wear her hair up in ornate fashions, happy to get out of bed and simply throw it back into a ponytail so it wouldn't get in her way. She didn't care to act coy or dainty just because it would get her a date to a school dance or make boys like her, apt to believe that when she was actually looking, someone would come around that liked her for who she was and not who she made herself out to be. "Be yourself" was her mantra even if it left her mother with some grief when she wore tattered jeans or cut her hair to unbelievably short lengths, far too boyish to be any sort of ladylike; and while it didn't always make for the best high school encounters, it was safe to say that Nayomi didn't particularly care what others thought of her as long as she felt good about herself.
Thankfully, it wasn't much of a concern as far as grades went and college wasn' at all a struggle beyond the financial toll it would undoubtedly take on her parents. They had saved up, only one child to consider paying tuition for, and Nayomi wasn't without her own resolve to apply to as many scholarships as she could, pulling what she could from those and financial aid. It was easy to save even further by staying in the area, able to stay with her parents during her first year at New York University - which was all she needed to realize that the four year institution wasn't for her. It was too bland, too boring, too stale and the pressure of falling into a major early wasn't something that settled well with her, not in high school and certainly not in college where she had been pusuring Liberal Arts instead of narrowing down her scope of study to something she would have to do the rest of her life lest she wanted to start at the bottom again.
Instead of completing the intention program there, Nayomi dropped out and instead focused her attention on ARROJO Cosmetology School in Tribeca. It was a move her parents weren't fond of, sure that she could have gotten an education that would take her far at a four year university, but it was ultimately Nayomi’s decision and they weren't going to step on the path that she was forging for herself, her mother particularly sure that she would hit a pitfall along the way and she would have her moment to say "I told you so".
Eight months and a Sale Associate position later, Nayomi was graduating from ARROYO Cosmetology and on her way to bigger and brighter things, even if she still kept her day job at Sephora, finding the freelance work far more enjoyable than nailing herself down in a salon. With the money she had managed to save from her position and living the college life of Ramen noodles and anything she could think of to flavor them other than the packets they came with, Nayomi found herself renting her own place in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, a half-hour closer to the work she did and the more fashion-focused center of New York, Manhattan, where she would be able to find more work as well as cut down on her commute.
This has been life since, balancing a normal nine-to-five, full time job with freelance Cosmetology work and those few days that she has off during the week, now living across the street from her best friends and simply enjoying the twists and turns that life gives her.
facts
• Is really rather a geek beneath all of the bright hair and tough exterior, something she is more apt to share with her closest friends than those beyond that circle.
• Enjoys live music, particularly rock n' roll and punk rock, but she isn' without her sway towards hip-hop and r&b, plenty to do with her father's choice of music in jazz and the blues.
storylines