Stories That Move You

As I write this with shaking hands, I know that shot that will haunt me for the rest of my life. But that’s OK. Because that shot also reminds me of my teammates, the importance of sticking together no matter what and the amazing feeling you get when you’re part of a team. It’s the same feeling I recognized in the faces of the U.S. women’s soccer team. And it’s a feeling that I hope every athlete – boy or girl – can experience.

If you're one of those parents who insists on yelling at the officials during your kid’s sporting event, let me start by saying, you’re right. OK? The kid probably did travel. That was a total strike. It was definitely icing. Obvious pass interference. But that doesn’t make up for all the ways we’re wrong.

In just a few weeks, my family will welcome a little girl into our lives. We're all excited about this, but no one is more excited than our 4-year-old son, Winston. His excitement has been one of the purest joys of the entire pregnancy. His excitement has been one of the purest joys of the entire pregnancy. He talks about "his baby" every day – where she will sleep, what she will eat, and how they will play together.

Just because I’m fearless on the court doesn’t mean that I’m fearless in my everyday life. In fact, even something fun and seemingly harmless like a swimming pool can scare me. The truth is—I never learned to swim as a child. I may be able to score a career playoff high of 27 points for the Boston Celtics, but if you threw me into the ocean, I’d drown.

I love the dog park.

I love it because Halea, my dog (a very rare breed of mutt), loves it. She runs and plays and sniffs, and for 30 minutes every day, I feel like I'm actually giving her the attention she deserves.

I love it because of what I see when I'm there. All different kinds, shapes, and sizes of dogs playing together. They don't worry or judge or take things too seriously.

I never imagined the level of deception that would be involved in parenting. I knew my husband and I would fully support Santa, the Easter bunny, and the tooth fairy.

What I didn't expect were the small dishonesties that help us get through the day.

My 15-year-old son recently got his learner’s permit. Enjoy this video, with several more examples of how our kids are watching more than we think.

My favorite thing to do while walking by myself was listening to music. I love music. As a child, I was always singing and being scolded by my Aunt Joyce for humming at inappropriate times. But music is soothing to me; it makes me feel happy, playful and, at times, sad. Listening to music and walking seemed, to me, a harmless combination. Needless to say, I soon found out the danger of it.

If there is one thing I know about myself, it’s that I am not the most coordinated person. I know this because I ran cross-country in high school, and I still have the scars to prove it. Even the smallest branch or bump in the road used to be enough to bring me tumbling to the ground in spectacular fashion.

This tradition of tumbling continued when I left for college and became a tour guide. If you have ever been on a tour of a college campus, you can imagine that it is not the best job for the uncoordinated. Leading the tours required me to walk backwards in front of large groups of people. On my very first tour as a freshly-minted guide, I ran into no less than five tree branches and several innocent bystanders, not to mention nearly being struck by a passing car.