Playing in Wembley Stadium in front of 83-some-thousand fans to win a gold medal was unreal.
I don't run on the treadmill, because there's no treadmill moving for you on the soccer field.
I went from a player who was never fit to a person who actually worked hard to get myself in shape.
I'm loyal. I'm real. I'm not afraid to say what I'm thinking.
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 think recovery is around the clock. Are you sleeping enough? Are you hydrating enough? Are you stretching? Are you eating well? Pretty much everything that I do is a reflection of how I'm going to feel on the field. I take great pride in getting in an ice bath after training and just taking care of myself.
I'm not having to go outside and switch the role model hat on. It's me, and it's important for me to leave that legacy to help inspire younger players because I didn't have a role model growing up.
I know that I'm a natural attacking player. I love to attack. I love to play freely; I love to combine and play through balls. That's the nature of my game.
If you're quiet, and you don't speak out, you're never going to get anything accomplished.
As a player, you just want to focus on controlling the controllables.
I'm not getting recognized because I posed in a swimsuit edition of some magazine, but because of what I do on the field, and that's important to me.
Everything in my life - family, friends, even my fiance - are all second to soccer. And I've won every tournament where I haven't had anyone there. It just seems to work for me. I don't think I'm going to change that.
At the end of the day, you can be physically strong, you can have all the tools out there, but if your mental state isn't good enough, you can't bring yourself to bigger and better things.
Fitness, defending, the mental stuff - those were all weaknesses of mine. And I turned those into strengths.
My emergence has been slow and steady, I would say. I think I've improved every single year. I keep getting better; I keep getting fitter, sharper - and I'm not stopping.
I don't want to be known for someone that's good-looking. I want to be known as someone who is one of the best midfielders. That's my thing.
In those one-off games, everyone can do those, but you put together a six, seven-game tournament, the strong survive. For me to still feel good from beginning to end, that's a testament to how I train and what I do.
I don't put on makeup when I'm getting ready for a game, because why would I? I am gearing up for battle. How is mascara or eyeliner going to help me win?
This is my journey. If I fall, I have to pick myself up. If I'm not getting the playing time I want, it's up to me to figure out why.
In men's sports, people criticize coaches and managers all the time, call out teammates, too, and it's not that huge of a deal. Often, the guy speaking out is even lauded for having the courage to tell the truth. When it happens in women's sports, though, it always seems to be viewed as a nasty, claws-out cat fight.
