I want to be strong. I want to be able to hit people. I want people to be able to bounce off me. When I go out there and play, I play to intimidate people. If someone gets hit down by me, they're going to think twice about coming near me again.
If I am training on a holiday, most likely nobody else is - and that gives me the edge. If I'm supposed to run for 20 minutes and I get back and it's only been 19:34, I'm going to jog in a circle for 26 more seconds. I'm never going to cut it short.
I had one girl tell me last night that I'm the greatest thing ever, that she wants to aspire to be me. Just stuff like, 'You're my idol. I love you.' It's awesome. It's what it's all about.
It's always hard to deal with injuries mentally, but I like to think about it as a new beginning. I can't change what happened, so the focus needs to go toward healing and coming back stronger than before.
I don't just train to be a participant. I train to come up big in big moments. That's when I know I've got to roll the sleeves up.
When I first joined the team, I was playing with the likes of Mia Hamm, Shannon MacMillan, Tiffeny Milbrett - all those big-time players. It was very intimidating. I had some of these players' posters on my wall growing up, and now I was able to play with them.
Any professional athlete will tell you that the mind is everything. For me, there is no shame in saying that I visualize and I meditate, because it really works.
Like many kids, I was thrown into recreational soccer in my town, and from there, I grew to love it. Everywhere I went, I carried a soccer ball with me.
For so long, I've been a little misunderstood as a person. You know, I do have this strut about me. I don't know if it's the Jersey girl in me. I like to think of myself as an egg, you know? Hard on the outside but soft on the inside.
I've kept to myself, I've put my head down. I've gone to work. And I have felt undervalued.
Winning the World Cup was a dream come true after so many years of wanting something so bad. After that final whistle, I dropped to the ground on my knees and got emotional.
