Number one, it was a chance to thank my parents, because they passed away a couple of years ago. They gave me so much by giving me the opportunity to play soccer, and I wanted to share the story we had together.

I cannot keep myself away from ice cream. I have two flavors that are my favorite: chocolate chip cookie dough and vanilla swiss almond. I can eat a whole pint of ice cream in one sitting, no problem!

And I remember how proud I was to put on my training jersey and go out on the field. Making it back to that environment was for me my greatest moment, because somebody had told me I couldn't do it and I never gave up on myself, the game and my teammates.

Well there are two things: Number one is, make sure you always enjoy yourself, because when you enjoy yourself, you'll learn, you'll want more information, you'll push yourself.

What I've really learned is to be open to listen to other people's opinions and then question my own thoughts. And learn how to talk to people. The biggest gift from having one of these moments is that it gets people talking.

The "r" word [racism] is a scary word to me - I don't like to say it. I'm not trying to say it doesn't exist. It's incredibly inflammatory and invites a lot of awful mistakes and injustices that have happened and still do happen. It's a word that has been thrown around in a way that incites a lot of bad feelings in most people.

I think there are a lot of things that soccer does in the communities that transcend the soccer field.