I was on Oprah's show recently talking about the people who impacted me the most. One was a teacher and one was my soccer coach. I didn't even go into my family, who had the most influence.

Michael Sanchez and I grew up in New Jersey, not far from here, playing soccer together. When I was in high school, I worked to start an organization to help senior citizens, which I learned a great deal from.

Winning isn't everything, but playing and competing and striving and going through things can be a lot of fun and really important. As long as you're doing it in a way that's healthy, sports can be an incredible opportunity.

When we're young we have a very clear vision of how life is supposed to be, and it all seems very neatly packaged.

Young people can be the catalyst for starting the effort to redefine what's important in America.

Unfortunately, there are so many people who live their whole life in a place that is safe and protected and simple and they don't really have that strength inside to fly.

You start to think bigger when you see how quickly a TV show can catch on in a whole country. That confidence, and thinking big, opened a lot of doors.