My hardest lesson has been my most fruitful, too: that when people don't believe in me, I can prove them wrong.
You'll be someone's favourite, and someone else is going to hate you, aren't they? I know that I can't please everyone, but what I can do is be myself and be true to my values.
I see I'm changing the game and opening doors for others, from my beginning from the east end of London. It's not a sob story; it made me the person I am today. It's seeing kids from any area or background you're from. There's a chance; you can make it.
I never want anyone to think I've been given a helping hand. I've always worked for everything, whether it be on the football field or away from it.
Football is for everyone, no matter what background you're from, what age, what level you play at. This is what it's all about: coming out today, having a good time, and getting involved.
I've adopted that mentality: every day I do weights and core in the gym in the morning and train on the field in the afternoon. And I'm strict with my diet - I include protein in every meal and snack.
I'm just happy I get paid to train every day and play football. I can't ask more than that.
Women are the same. We watch football; we play football. Why wouldn't we be out there giving our opinions on the sport ,too?
I'm that girl - I've never been camping; I don't even go to festivals because I hate the cold and the rain. If it starts to rain, I'm the first one on the training field to go in and get a hat!
I have played in matches where individuals have frozen and gone into their shells: they don't want the ball, they don't communicate, and they don't do their jobs. Fear turns them to stone.
The first one is your first World Cup, so you go into it with a lot of pressure, trying to take it all in, but you are just so focused.
When I was in the GB Women's football team at the 2012 Olympics, it was obvious who was in the first XI and who was making up the numbers. Kelly Smith was going to be first-choice striker no matter what, and the other forwards in the squad mentally checked out as a result.
Some people don't like change. Some embrace it. But the way it's going - not just in football, but in society generally - it's more diverse. People want freshness.
The enjoyment of playing football gave me a positive pathway, but I could have taken a very different path.
You have to listen to the anthems, allow the emotion to come, but then need to snap back into the match and your specific task.
When things don't happen in my life, I believe that I've been pushed into another path for a reason, and there's a bigger picture.
All I know is two wrongs do not make a right. And nobody's perfect; ain't nobody right all the time.
I may not have played men's football, but I've been at World Cups as a player. I know the emotions. I've been in quarter finals, a semi-final. I'd been substituted and sat on the bench watching us lose a penalty shoot-out. I know what happens, what you need when the pressure's on.
During the 2012 Olympics, I decided to put on some cheesy pop because I knew Ellen White liked it. The first song was 'Reach for the Stars' by S Club 7, and before I knew it, everyone was singing it - suddenly it was our song.
For me, football is football. I'm a fan; I'm passionate. I feel lucky to be in the position that I am.
