https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4 Abby Wambach en-us 2019-11-08 17:22:58 UTC 2020-01-20 06:11:15 UTC hello@padlet.com kuoltcam000 https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/410712872 WAMBACH, ABBY. FORWARD: a Memoir. HARPERCOLLINS, 2017.]]> 2019-11-13 17:14:05 UTC https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/410712872 kuoltcam000 https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/432735200
Typical sports memoirs glorify the virtues of self-expression and self-discovery through sports, Wambach’s memoir makes you think whether the whole attempt is worthwhile. She loves being good at soccer, collecting the praise and goal-bounty money from her parents. She doesn’t love soccer itself. Early in the book, Wambach makes that much clear:

My future teammate and friend Mia Hamm will one day offer this advice: “Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back . . . play for her.” (chapter 2 page 12-13)

]]> 2020-01-17 00:26:50 UTC https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/432735200 kuoltcam000 https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/432735910 Her openness is a startling shift for someone who put up more barriers as her career went on.

¨One night, at a house party, I debate how to tell my teammates that I’m gay.¨(chapter 5 page 37) This is showing us she is willing to open up to the people she loves with out feeling judged.  ]]> 2020-01-17 00:30:08 UTC https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/432735910 kuoltcam000 https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/432738677 She didn't want to be seen as that "little girl" so she embraces life as a hard-partying high school jock. Sheś often either drunk or hungover, she barely passes her classes and puts sarcasm and disinterest. She’s in danger of wasting her incredible talent with poor diet and exercise habits. Wambach blames no one but herself. When she's writing about infidelities/unfaithfulness by her high school boyfriend and one of her first serious girlfriends, she hardly seems angry. She blames herself for rare defeats on the field and for any failings, real and imagined, off it.

¨I am not, and never will be, that little girl¨ (Chapter 2 page 13) ]]> 2020-01-17 00:41:05 UTC https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/432738677 kuoltcam000 https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/432741634 She pops pills to deal with physical and mental anguish, particularly after a shattered leg forces her to miss the 2008 Olympics. 

Outside source: Barack Obama became the first black president in the United States in 2008.  https://www.biography.com/us-president/barack-obama]]> 2020-01-17 00:53:36 UTC https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/432741634 kuoltcam000 https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433441968 Wambach is not bragging about her own determination to survive. In fact, she often seems detached from the parts of herself that succeed. When she describes a wave of raw willpower that gets her through a fitness test at Florida after a summer of ignoring coach Becky Burleigh’s conditioning advice, she describes the feeling as something that simply appeared from nowhere, not some deep resolve that revealed good character. She credits herself as a world-class B.S. artist, watching with shock as the skill doesn’t translate into a TV analyst debut she describes as “epically horrible” but feeling relieved when she wins praise for public speaking.

¨She calls Florida’s coach, Becky Burleigh, advises her to hurry to seal the deal, and I’m off to visit Florida within the week.¨ (chapter 3 page 24-25)]]> 2020-01-19 19:52:13 UTC https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433441968 kuoltcam000 https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433493158 The last few years of her career are difficult. Her body breaks down. After their wedding, Huffman decides to stay in Portland rather than play another season with Western New York, and the long-distance relationship takes a toll on Wambach’s play.

¨It was difficult for me to identify these inequities when I was in the thick of my career, just thrilled to be getting paid the realization that I am going to have to find another job—I think about them every time I put on my uniform and go to work.¨ (chapter 18 page 148)]]> 2020-01-20 02:04:59 UTC https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433493158 kuoltcam000 https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433499060 Her 2015 playing hiatus, she reveals, was less about saving her body and more about saving her marriage. She reads Internet discussions dissecting her declining form and accusing her of flopping for calls.

Outside source: ¨A major aviation mystery in 2015 differed from the series of crashes the previous year in that the plane’s recording device led investigators to a suspect shortly after the deadly crash: the co-pilot. The recording from inside the cockpit of Germanwings Flight 9525 during the March 24 flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf indicated that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the lead pilot out of the cockpit during a break and proceeded to direct the plane toward the mountains of the French Alps, killing all 150 passengers and crew on board.¨]]> 2020-01-20 02:37:30 UTC https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433499060 kuoltcam000 https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433501634 Wambach was going through a bunch of rough patches but she didn't take it out the right way.
¨In his honor I book a trip to Las Vegas, withdrawing fifteen thousand dollars of the money Sarah and I received for our wedding. I hit table after table, playing poker, blackjack, craps—intending to lose every cent. In fact, I want to lose it, and I bet as irresponsibly as I can, hitting on seventeen, placing sucker bets on big six and big eight, making comically bad bluffs. To my frustration, I keep winning, racking up chips hour after hour until I find myself with thirty thousand dollars, double what I came with.¨  (chapter 17 page 143-144)]]> 2020-01-20 02:52:40 UTC https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433501634 kuoltcam000 https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433514079 Some athletes thank their enablers. Wambach thanks everyone who ever kicked her in the butt – coaches like Jerry Smith and April Heinrichs who told her to wake up and work on her conditioning

“I have to admit it’s true, she writes. If only I were half as talented as flopping around as I once was at playing soccer.” (chapter 17 page 140)]]> 2020-01-20 04:02:58 UTC https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433514079 kuoltcam000 https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433515644 World Cup was over so her main focus was now towards her marriage. The one upsetting thing was how unfair the pay was for the men in the World Cup and the woman.
¨I’ll argue that FIFA should spend more money promoting women’s soccer ($73 million on our World Cup, compared to $2.2 billion for the men) and be more transparent with its finances; currently they offer no concrete figures about how much revenue we generate.¨
(Chapter 19 page 168)]]> 2020-01-20 04:12:51 UTC https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433515644 kuoltcam000 https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433520089 Abby Wambach last and final game was December 16, 2015 she put together an email to her inner circle and talked abut everything. She did her same rituals that she has always done the the difference is it will be the last. 

Outside source: Quarterback Tom Brady's for the New England patriots and his team was accused of under-inflating footballs during the AFC championship game.]]> 2020-01-20 04:40:53 UTC https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433520089 kuoltcam000 https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433522825 The retirement life was hard for Wambach she loved the game so much that she never wanted to stop but she did go home and her home town threw her a retirement party. But she flew back and Sarah (her wife) and Wambach had the worst fight and all she wanted to do is pop her pills and swig it down with alcohol.  
¨When I get home, Sarah and I have the worst fight of our marriage to date. I am gripped by the need to remove myself from the situation. If I stay, I know I will pick up my pills again, wash them down with too much vodka, and ruin all the hard work I did in that hotel room.¨ (chapter 21 page 186)]]> 2020-01-20 04:58:51 UTC https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433522825 kuoltcam000 https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433527100 The last day of March Wambach and her wife Sarah have another huge fight many words are being thrown back and forth and finally Wambach says “I’m drawing up divorce papers. I’ll move out, you’ll move out, I’ll sell my car, you’ll sell the other car, we’ll get new shit, get new everything, and start over.” I seclude myself on the opposite side of our house, as far away from her as I can be without leaving. I am still distraught at the idea of selling but can’t imagine staying here, trapped in four thousand square feet of ruined paradise, surrounded by the ghosts of dead dreams. I am still sober, and furious, when I fall asleep.¨ (chapter 22 page 202)

Outside source: Prince was found dead in his home. ]]> 2020-01-20 05:21:08 UTC https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433527100 kuoltcam000 https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433528851 Wambach has been sober for awhile now but she decides to go out with some friends and it doesn't turn out to well she gets drunk and starts to drive home but then, a cop pulls her over.

¨As he scans the documents, he asks if I’ve been drinking. I tell him I’ve just come from a dinner party, where I had a few glasses of wine. “Okay,” he says. “Well, your eyes are bloodshot, and I smell booze on your breath.” He asks me to submit to a field sobriety test, and I agree¨ (chapter 22 page 204)]]> 2020-01-20 05:33:16 UTC https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433528851 kuoltcam000 https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433530732 2016 Wambach said that she makes a list of people she has disappointed and reaches out one by one. She just wants to be seen as an honest and nice person overall and doesn't want to hurt people.

¨I pick my public words just as carefully; I want them to sound like me—honest and straight, like someone willing to accept blame. I recognize a strange truth: after all the searching, the meditation, the drinking, the pills, the therapy, the solitary road trips, the tortured text exchanges, and the time spent living in my head, this colossal mistake will be the catalyst for getting to know myself again.¨ (chapter 23 page 216)

Outside source: Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated to be president.]]> 2020-01-20 05:48:14 UTC https://padlet.com/kuoltcam000/f8k3zmol75g4/wish/433530732