It was definitely a big boost when I went into Australia. That's what really got my recognition going. I started scoring. I started feeling a little bit better each game.
My journey has been up and down a little bit. Everything that has to do with success for me has sort of become a shock to me. You work so hard, you work so hard, and it happens; you're like, 'What? Wait, it's happening to me?'
You name the sport, I've played it. I was quarterback for a football team one year, played volleyball, played softball - you name it.
It's just an amazing feeling to walk barefooted in some nice grass.
Being able to inspire my kid with what I'm doing now, it's going to help him succeed in the future, and that's one of my main goals here - is to try and succeed on the field, and succeed as a mother.
I became a starter in Portland, and then I lost my spot, but for what reason? It wasn't explained to me. I thought it was unfair.
I've had so many parents DM me on social media thanking me because I simply have dreadlocks, because their daughters wear dreadlocks and play with dreadlocks, and I'm like, 'Well why not? Let's do it.' It's really cool to be able to inspire the younger generation of kids of color that look like us.
Obviously this is something huge, just to be playing on the world stage and repping all the parents out there - not just the parents, but obviously all of the African American girls who feel as if they don't have much to rely to make your dreams come true, whatever the circumstances may be.
There hasn't been any positive steps for moms in the NWSL. Now we're kind of getting our heads together, getting ideas together, and so now we can start somewhere as moms... Child care is not cheap. And if you look at our paychecks and you look at child care, there goes our paycheck. How are we going to eat?
Sometimes women's soccer can be political.
The more minutes you get on the pitch, the more you can prove yourself.
Everyone has their opinions about the Bible and God.
I'm trying to take care of my kid, and the only way to do that is obviously being financially stable.
Being able to go home to my kid is such a relief because he's such a happy kid. He balances my life out in such a good way.
When you become a parent, obviously it changes your life in so many ways.
That's what pushes me every day to want to be successful on the soccer field - being able to not only take care of my kid on a financial level and be stable but, most importantly, to inspire my child.
You don't know where you're going to be tomorrow. It's kind of hard to plan a future.
After having a child, my career just skyrocketed. You have all that weight to kill off - you're working 10 times harder.
