Speech
演讲

Greetings to President Beilock, Provost, Dean, Barnard faculty, trustees, and the honorees: Katherine Johnson, Anna Quindlen, and Rhea Suh. And to each of the 619 badass ^[1] women of the Barnard graduating Class of 2018. Congratulations, you guys, congratulations!

Doesn't it feel like the second you figure anything out ^[2] in life, it ends and you're forced to start all over again? Experts call these times of life “transitions”. I call them terrifying. I went through a terrifying transition recently when I retired from soccer.

The world tries to distract us from our fear during these transitions by creating fancy ceremonies for us. This is your fancy ceremony. Mine was the ESPYs ^[3] , a nationally televised sports award show. I had to get dressed up ^[4] for that, just like you got dressed up for this. But they sent me a really expensive fancy stylist. It doesn't look like you guys got one. Sorry about that.

So it went like this: ESPN ^[5] called and told me they were gonna honor me with their inaugural ^[6] icon award. I was humbled, of course, to be regarded as an icon. Did I mention that I'm an icon?

I received my award along with two other incredible athletes—basketball's Kobe Bryant and football's Peyton Manning. We all stood on stage together and watched the highlights of our careers with the cameras rolling and the fans cheering, and I looked around and had a moment of extreme awe. I felt so grateful to be there, included in the company of Kobe and Peyton. I had a momentary feeling of having arrived—like we women had finally made it.

Then the applause ended and it was time for the three of us to exit stage left. And as I watched those men walk off the stage, it dawned on me ^[7] that the three of us were stepping into very different futures.

Each of us, Kobe, Peyton and I, we made the same sacrifices. We shed the same amount of bloods, sweats, and tears. We'd left it all on the field ^[8] for decades with the same ferocity, talent, and commitment. But our retirements wouldn't be the same at all. Because Kobe and Peyton walked away from their careers with something I didn't have: enormous bank accounts. Because of that, they had something else I didn't have—freedom. Their hustling days were over, and mine were just beginning.

Later that night, back in my hotel room, I laid in bed and thought: This isn't just about me, and this isn't just about soccer. We talk a lot about the pay gap. We talk about how, we overall, U.S. women earn 80 cents for every dollar paid to men. Black women in America earn 63 cents, while Latinas earn 54 cents, for every dollar paid to white men. What we need to talk more about is the aggregate ^[9] and compounding effects of the pay gap on women's lives. Over time, the pay gap means women are able to invest less and save less, so they have to work longer. When we talk about what the pay gap costs us, let's be clear: It costs us our very lives.

And it hit me that I'd spent most of my time during my career the same way I'd spent my time on that ESPYs stage. Just feeling grateful, grateful to be one of the only women to have a seat at the table. I was so grateful to receive any respect at all for myself that I often missed opportunities to demand equality for all of us. But as you know, women of Barnard, change is here. Women are learning that we can be grateful for what we have and also demand what we deserve.

Like all little girls, I was taught to be grateful. I was taught to keep my head down, stay on the path, and get my job done. I was freaking Little Red Riding Hood. You know the fairy tale. It's just one iteration ^[10] of the warning stories girls are told the world over. Little Red Riding Hood heads off through the woods and is given strict instructions: Stay on the path. Don't talk to anybody. Keep your head down hidden underneath your Handmaid's Tale cape.

And she does … at first. But then she dares to get a little curious and she ventures ^[11] off the path. That's, of course, when she encounters the big bad wolf and all hell breaks loose ^[12] . The message is clear: Don't be curious. Don't make trouble. Don't say too much, or bad things will happen. I stayed on the path out of fear—not of being eaten by a wolf—but of being cut, being benched ^[13] ， losing my paycheck. If I could go back and tell my younger self one thing it would be this: “Abby, you were never Little Red Riding Hood. You were always the wolf.”

So when I was entrusted with the honor of speaking here today, I decided that the most important thing for me to say to you, is this: Barnard women, Class of 2018, we are the wolves.

In 1995, around the year of your birth, wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park after being absent for 70 years. In those years, the number of deer had skyrocketed because they were unchallenged, alone at the top of the food chain. They grazed ^[14] away and reduced the vegetation, so much that the riverbanks were eroding.

Once the wolves arrived, they thinned out ^[15] the deer through hunting. But more significantly, their presence changed the behavior of the deer. Wisely, the deer started avoiding the valleys and the vegetation in those places regenerated. Trees quintupled ^[16] in just six years. Birds and beavers started moving in. The river dams the beavers built provided habita ts ^[17] for otters and ducks and fish. The animal ecosystem regenerated. But that wasn't all. The rivers actually changed as well. The plant regeneration stabilized the riverbanks so they stopped collapsing. The rivers steadied—all because of the wolves' presence.

See what happened here? The wolves—who were feared as a threat to the system—turned out to be its salvation. Barnard women, are you all picking up what I'm laying down here? Women are feared as a threat to our system—and we will also be our salvation.

Our landscape is overrun ^[18] with archaic ways of thinking about women, about people of color, about the “other”, about the rich and the poor, about the powerful and the powerless. And these ways of thinking are destroying us. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We will not (be) Little Red Riding Hood our way through life. We will unite our pack, storm the valley together and change the whole bloody system.

Throughout my life, my pack has been my team. Teams need a unifying structure, and the best way to create one collective heartbeat is to establish rules for your team to live by. It doesn't matter what specific page you're all on, just as long as you're all on the same one.

Here are four rules I've used to unite my pack and lead them to gold.

Rule one: Make failure your fuel.

Here's something the best athletes understand, but seems like a harder concept for non-athletes to grasp. Non-athletes don't know what to do with the gift of failure. So they hide it, pretend it never happened, reject it outright, and they end up wasting it.

Listen. Failure is not something to be ashamed of. It's something to be powered by. Failure is the highest octane ^[19] fuel your life can run on. You gotta learn to make failure your fuel.

When I was on the Youth National Team, only dreaming of playing alongside Mia Hamm—Y'all know her? Good. I had the opportunity to visit the national team's locker room. The thing that struck me most wasn't my heroes' grass-stained cleats ^[20] , or their names and numbers hanging above their lockers. It was a picture. It was a picture that someone had taped next to the door so that it would be the last thing every player saw before she headed out to the training pitch. You might guess it was a picture of their last big win, or of them standing on a podium accepting gold medals. But it wasn't. It was a picture of their long-time rival, the Norwegian national team celebrating after having just beaten the USA in the 1995 World Cup.

In that locker room I learned that in order to become my very best—on the pitch and off—I'd need to spend my life letting the feelings and lessons of failure transform into my power. Failure is fuel. Fuel is power.

Women, listen to me. We must embrace failure as our fuel instead of accepting it as our destruction. As Michelle Obama recently said, “I wish that girls could fail as well as men do and be OK. Because let me tell you watching men fail up, it's frustrating. It's frustrating to see men blow it and win. And we hold ourselves to these crazy, crazy standards.”

Wolf Pack: Fail up, blow it and win.

Rule two: Lead from the bench.

Imagine this: You've scored more goals than any human being on the planet—female or male. You've co-captained and led Team USA in almost every category for the past decade. And you and your coach sit down and decide together that you won't be a starter in your last World Cup for Team USA. So, that sucked.

You'll feel benched sometimes, too. You'll be passed over for the promotion, taken off the project. You might even be finding yourself holding a baby instead of a briefcase, watching your colleagues “get ahead”. Here's what's important. You're allowed to be disappointed when it feels like life's benched you. What you aren't allowed to do is miss your opportunity to lead from the bench. During that last World Cup, my teammates told me that my presence, my support, my vocal and relentless belief in them from the bench, is what gave them the confidence they needed to win us that championship.

If you're not a leader on the bench, then don't call yourself a leader on the field. You're either a leader everywhere or nowhere. And by the way, the fiercest leading I've ever seen has been done between mother and child. Parenting is no bench. It just might be the big game.

Wolf Pack: Wherever you're put, lead from there.

Rule three: Champion each other.

During every 90-minute soccer match there are a few magical moments when the ball actually hits the back of the net and a goal is scored. When this happens, it means that everything has come together perfectly—the perfect pass, the perfectly timed run, every player in the right place at exactly the right time—all of this culminating in a moment in which one player scores the goal.

What happens next on the field is what transforms a bunch of individual women into a team. Teammates from all over the field rush toward the goal scorer. It appears that we're celebrating her, but what we're really celebrating is every player, every coach, every practice, every sprint, every doubt and even every failure that this one single goal represents. You will not always be the goal scorer. And when you are not, you better be rushing toward her.

Women must champion each other. This can be difficult for us. Women have been pitted against each other since the beginning of time, for that one seat at the table. Scarcity has been planted inside of us and among us. This scarcity is not our fault, but it is our problem. And it is within our power to create abundance for women where scarcity used to live.

As you go out into the world, amplify each other's voices. Demand seats for women, people of color and all marginalized people at every table where decisions are made. Call out each other's wins and, just like we do on the field, claim the success of one woman as a collective success for all women.

Joy. Success. Power. These are not pies where a bigger slice for her means a smaller slice for you. These are infinite. In any revolution, the way to make something true starts with believing it is. Let's claim infinite joy, success, and power—together.

Wolf Pack: Her victory is your victory. Celebrate it.

Fourth rule: Demand the ball.

When I was a teenager, I was lucky enough to play with one of my heroes, Michelle Akers. She needed a place to train since there was not yet a women's professional league. Michelle was tall like I am, built like I'd be built and the most courageous soccer player I'd ever seen play. She personified every one of my dreams.

We were playing a small-sided scrimmage—five against five. We were 18 years old and she was Michelle Akers, a chiseled, 30-year-old powerhouse. For the first three-quarters of the game, she was taking it easy on us, coaching us, teaching us about spacing, timing and the tactics of the game.

But by the fourth quarter, she realized that because of all of this coaching, her team was losing by three goals. In that moment, a light switched on inside of her. She ran back to the goalkeeper, stood one yard away from her and screamed: Give. Me. The. Effing ^[21] . Ball.

And the goalkeeper gave her the effing ball. And she took that ball and she dribbled through our entire effing team, and she scored. Now this game was “winner's keepers”, so if you scored you got the ball back.

So, as soon as Michelle scored, she ran back to her goalie, stood a yard away from her and screamed: Give. Me. The. Ball .

The keeper did. And again she dribbled through us and scored. And then she did it again. She took her team to victory. Michelle Akers knew what her team needed from her at every moment of the game. Don't forget, until the fourth quarter, leadership had required Michelle to help, support and teach, but eventually leadership called her to demand the ball.

Wolf Pack: At this moment in history, leadership is calling us to say:

Give me the effing ball.

Give me the effing job.

Give me the same pay the guy next to me gets.

Give me the promotion.

Give me the microphone.

Give me the Oval Office.

Give me the respect I've earned, and give it to my wolf pack too.

In closing, I want to leave you with the most important thing I have learned since leaving soccer. When I retired, my sponsor, Gatorade, surprised me at a meeting with the plan for my send-off ^[22] commercial. The message was this: Forget Me. They nailed ^[23] it. They knew I wanted my legacy to be ensuring the future success of the sport I'd dedicated my life to. If my name were forgotten, that would mean that the women who came behind me were breaking records, winning championships and pushing the game to new heights. When I shot that commercial, I cried.

A year later, I found myself coaching my 10-year-old daughter's soccer team. I'd coached them all the way to the championship. One day I was warming up the team, doing a little shooting drill ^[24] . I was telling them a story about when I retired. And one of those little girls looked up to me and said, “So what did you retire from?” And I looked down at her and said, “Soccer.” And she said, “Oh. Who did you play for?” And I said, “The United States of America.” And she said, “Oh. Does that mean that you know Alex Morgan ^[25] ?” Be careful what you wish for, Barnard. They forgot me.

But that's OK. Being forgotten in my retirement didn't scare me. What scared me was losing the identity the game gave me. I defined myself as Abby Wambach , soccer player, the one who showed up and gave 100 percent to my team and fought alongside my wolf pack to make a better future for the next generation. Without soccer, who would I be? A few months after retirement, I began creating my new life. I met Glennon and our three children, and I became a wife, a mother, a business owner and an activist. And you know who I am now? I'm still the same Abby. I still show up and give 100 percent—now to my new pack, and I still fight every day to make a better future for the next generation.

You see, soccer didn't make me who I was. I brought who I was to soccer. And I get to bring who I am wherever I go. And guess what? So do you. As you leave here today and every day going forward, don't just ask yourself, “What do I want to do?” Ask yourself, “Who do I want to be?” Because the most important thing I've learned is that what you do will never define you. Who you are always will. And who you are, Barnard women, are the wolves.

Surrounding you today is your wolf pack. Look around. Go ahead, you can do it. Don't lose each other. Leave these sacred grounds united, storm the valleys together, and be our salvation.

拜洛克校长、教务长、院长、巴纳德的教职工们、董事们以及获奖者凯瑟琳·约翰逊、安娜·昆德兰、瑞亚·苏，你们好！巴纳德2018届619名了不起的女士们，祝贺你们，祝贺！

这感觉像不像那种时刻，你刚想明白了生活中的事情，事情结束后，你又不得不全部重新开始？专业人士称人生的这类时刻为“过渡期”。我则把它们叫做可怕的过渡期。从足球队退役后，我最近就经历了一段可怕的过渡期。

在这些过渡期期间，世界企图通过为我们举办一些华丽的典礼让我们忘却恐惧。这是你们的华丽盛典，我的则是全国电视直播的“年度卓越运动员奖”颁奖节目。和你们一样，我也要为我的典礼精心打扮一番。他们给我派来了一个收费昂贵的高级造型师。看来你们没有这样的造型师。深表遗憾。

事情是这样的：ESPN打来电话告知要把他们的首个偶像奖授予我。被人当作偶像，我当然受宠若惊。我提到过自己是个偶像吗？

我和另外两位了不起的运动员——篮球运动员科比·布莱恩特和橄榄球运动员佩顿·曼宁一起获得了奖项。我们一起站在舞台上，在相机的光闪和粉丝的欢呼声中见证了各自事业的巅峰。我环顾四周，有一瞬间感到极度敬畏。我很感激能够站在那里，能够与科比和佩顿站在一起。有那么一刻我一度感觉已经成功——好像我们女性最终胜利了一样。

掌声过后，我们三个该从左侧退出舞台了。看着他们走下舞台，我突然意识到我们三个正在走向截然不同的未来。

我们每一个人，我、科比和佩顿都做出了同样的牺牲。我们流过同样多的血汗和泪水。几十年来，我们在球场上表现出的是同样的勇猛、天分和投入。但是退役后，我们一点儿也不一样。因为科比和佩顿离开时带着一样我没有的东西，那就是巨额的银行存款。因此，他们就有了我不具备的另一样东西——自由。对他们来说，忙碌的日子已经结束，而对我来说，忙碌的日子才刚刚开始。

那天晚上晚些时候，回到宾馆房间，我躺在床上想：这不是我一个人的事，这也不只是足球界的事。有关薪水差距，我们谈得很多。我们讨论，总的来说美国男性如何每赚一美元，女性只能赚80美分。在美国白人男性每被支付一美元的酬劳，黑人女性只能得到63美分，而拉美人只能得到54美分。我们更需谈论的是薪水差距给女性生活带来的综合和叠加影响。长此以往，薪水差距意味着女性能投资和储蓄的钱更少，她们因此要工作更长的时间。在我们讨论薪水差距给我们带来什么损失时，要清楚一点：薪水差距损害的是我们的生活本身。

我意识到，我在ESPY颁奖舞台上度过时间的方式，就是我职业生涯期间度过大部分时光的方式。仅仅是感激，感激成为拥有一席之地的少数女性之一。我自己受到任何尊重都如此感激，以至于常常错失良机，没能为所有女性要求平等。但是，你们知道的，巴纳德的女士们，改变从这里开始。女性正在认识到，我们可以感激拥有的一切，但同时也可以要求得到我们应得的。

和所有的小女孩一样，我接受的教育是要心存感激。我被教导要保持谦虚，循规蹈矩，做好自己分内的事。我就是被吓坏了的小红帽。你们都知道那个童话故事，它不过是在重述全世界讲给女生们听的那个警示故事。小红帽离开家穿越森林，她收到了严厉的指令：不要离开小路；不要和任何人说话；低下头躲在《使女的故事》里出现的那种斗篷里。

一开始，她依照指令……但是后来她敢于有一点儿好奇并冒险离开了小路。当然，她遇到了那只大坏狼，一下子就乱套了。这其中的信息很清楚：不要好奇；不要惹麻烦；不要多话，言多必失。我因为害怕没离开小路——不是害怕被大坏狼吃掉，而是害怕被裁减，害怕被换下场，害怕丢掉“饭碗”。如果我可以回到过去告诉年轻的我一件事，我会说：“艾比，你永远不是小红帽，你一直都是那匹狼。”

所以，当我今天受托有幸能够站在这里演讲时，我决定自己要跟你们说的最重要的事是：巴纳德的女士们，2018届毕业生们，我们是狼。

你们在1995年前后出生。那一年，消失了70年的狼又被重新引入了黄石国家森林公园。之前那些年，鹿的数量激增，因为它们没了天敌，独自待在食物链的顶端。它们啃噬植被，因植被减少，导致河岸水土流失。

狼一到黄石公园就捕猎鹿，鹿的数量减少了。但更有意义的是，狼的存在改变了鹿的行为方式。鹿儿们开始明智地避开河谷，所以那里的植被重新生长。仅仅六年之内，树木数量就增加至原来的五倍。鸟儿和河狸开始入驻。河狸建造的河流堤坝为水獭、鸭子和鱼儿提供了栖息之地。动物生态系统又重新建立了起来。还不止这些。实际上，河流也发生了变化。重生的植被稳固了河岸，河岸不再坍塌。河流平稳了——这全是因为狼的存在。

看明白发生什么了吗？狼，原本被当成威胁生态系统的可怕存在，却变成了生态系统的救星。巴纳德的女士们，你们都明白我要说的了吗？女性被当成系统的威胁——我们也会成为自己的救星。

我们这里流行的依然用过时的看待女性、有色人种，“他者”、穷人和富人、掌权者和无权者的方式。这些看待方式正在毁掉我们。我们就是我们一直在等的人。我们不会一辈子做小红帽。我们将团结起自己的群体，一起冲进河谷，改变整个可恶的系统。

在我的一生中，我的群体就是我的球队。球队需要一个联合的结构，而创造同样心跳节奏的最好办法就是制定球队赖以生存的法则。重要的不是你们具体的想法是什么，重要的是你们想法一致。

下面是我用来团结群体的四条法则，这四条法则引领她们走向辉煌。

第一条法则：把失败变成燃料。

我下面要讲的顶级运动员能够理解，但对于普通人来说，理解似乎更困难。普通人不知道如何处理失败这个礼物。所以他们把失败藏起来，假装失败从来没有发生过，完全拒绝失败，最终他们浪费了这个礼物。

听着，失败并不可耻。失败可以提供能量。失败是你们的生命能够燃烧的最高辛烷值燃料。你们要学会把失败变成燃料。

还在国家青少年队时，我只梦想着能和米娅·哈姆一起踢球，你们都知道她吧？很好。我曾有机会参观国家队的更衣室。让我最吃惊的不是女英雄们那些染上草绿色的防滑鞋，也不是她们挂在储物柜上的名字和号码。是一张照片。有人把这张照片贴在门边，这样每个球员出发去训练场前最后看到的就是这张照片。你们或许会猜那是她们最近获得大胜的照片，或是她们站在台上接受金牌的照片。都不是，那是她们的宿敌挪威国家队的照片。照片上挪威队正在庆祝她们刚在1995年世界杯上打败了美国队。

在那个更衣室里，我领悟到，为了成为最好的自己——不论场上还是场下——我一生都需要把失败的感受和教训转化成我的动力。失败是燃料，燃料就是动力。

女士们，听我说，我们必须拥抱失败，把它当成我们的燃料而不是接受它作为我们的毁灭。正如米歇尔·奥巴马最近说的那样：“我希望女孩子们可以像男人们一样失败，并且没事。因为我告诉你们，看男人们失败是件令人沮丧的事情。看男人们把事情搞砸，然后又取得成功，这很令人沮丧。我们自己却要坚守那些疯狂的标准。”

狼群：失败，搞砸，然后成功。

第二条法则：在替补席上发挥带领作用。

试想一下：你是全球进球最多的人，超过任何男人和女人。过去十年里，几乎每一场比赛，你都作为副队长带领美国队。然后，你和教练一起坐下来，决定在你为美国队踢的最后一次世界杯上，你将不作为首发队员。这真的是糟糕透了。

有时，你也会有自己被换下场的感觉。你会得不到提拔，被迫离开项目。你甚至可能发现自己抱着个孩子而不是公文包，看着你的同事们“领先”。重要的是，当感觉生活把你换下场时，你可以允许自己失落。你不能做的是错过在替补席发挥领导作用的机会。上一次世界杯期间，我的队友们告诉我，我坐在替补席上，在那里支持她们，口中大喊对她们的坚定信心，正是这些给了她们夺冠所需的信心。

如果在替补席你不是领导者，那么在场上就不要声称自己是领导者了。你要不就处处当领导者，要不就哪里都别想着当领导者。顺便提一下，我见过的最激烈的领导与被领导关系发生在母子之间。为人父母是没有替补的。亲子关系也许就是大赛本身。

狼群：不论你们被安置在何处，都要在那里发挥引领作用。

第三条法则：捍卫彼此。

在90分钟足球赛期间总会有一些神奇的时刻，球实实在在地击到球网内侧，球进了。这些时刻的到来意味着一切都完美地结合在一起——完美的传球，定时精准的奔跑，每个球员都在正确的时间站在正确的位置上——所有这些统统在某一时刻达到极致：某个球员踢进了球。

场上接下来发生的事情把一群单个的女人凝聚成一支球队。遍布全场的队员们都冲向进球的球员。看起来我们似乎在祝贺她，但其实我们是在为这一次进球所代表的每一位球员、每一个教练、每一次训练、每一次冲刺、每一次怀疑甚至每一次失败而庆贺。你不可能永远都进球。当不是你的时候，你最好奔向进球者。

女性必须捍卫彼此。这对我们来说并不容易。女性从一开始就为仅有的一席之地而彼此争斗。匮乏已经深植在我们心中，弥散在我们之间。这种匮乏不是我们的错误，但却是我们的问题。并且我们有能力在原本匮乏之处为女性创造出丰足。

在你们走向世界的时候，请放大彼此的声音。为女性、有色人种和所有被边缘化的人争取在每个决策桌上的席位。为彼此的胜利欢呼，就像我们在赛场上那样，把一个女人的成功当成所有女性共同的成功。

快乐、成功和力量，这些都不是馅饼，她拿一块更大的意味着你的那块会更小。这些都是无限量的。在所有的革命中，让某件事成真的方法始于相信它的确为真。让我们赢得无限的快乐、成功和力量——我们一起赢得。

狼群：她的胜利就是你的胜利，庆祝胜利。

第四条法则：要球。

青少年时代，我曾有幸和自己的偶像之一米歇尔·埃克斯一起踢球。她需要一个训练的场地，因为那时候还没有一支专业的女性联盟。米歇尔和我一样高，身材和后来的我一样健壮，是我见过的最勇敢的足球运动员。她是我所有梦想的化身。

我们踢了一个小场地对抗赛——5比5。我们当时18岁，而她是米歇尔·埃克斯，30岁，身经百战，体力过人。前四分之三场，她都很放松，指导我们，教我们把握间距、控时和比赛技巧。

但是到了后四分之一场，她意识到因为之前的指导，她的球队已经输了三个球。这时，她的小宇宙爆发了。她往回跑向守门员，在离她一码远的地方站定，大喊道：“给我球。”

守门员把该死的球传给了她，她拿到球，带球穿过我们整个球队，然后她进球了。现在这场球赛是“赢者拿球”，所以如果你进球了，你就可以拿回球。

所以，米歇尔一进球就往回跑向守门员，站在离她一码远的地方，大喊道：“给我球。”

守门员就这么做了，然后她再一次带球闯过我们，然后进球。然后再次重复整个过程。她带领着她的球队走向胜利。米歇尔·埃克斯很清楚比赛的每一刻她的球队需要她做什么。不要忘记，在后四分之一场之前，作为领导者，她必须帮助、支持并传授技巧给其他队员，但是最后领导者的责任则要求她去要球。

狼群：在历史的这一刻，领导者的责任要求我们说：

给我球。

给我工作。

给我和旁边那家伙一样的薪酬。

给我晋升机会。

给我麦克风。

给我总统办公室。

给我该有的尊重，也给我狼群该有的尊重。

最后，我想留给你们的是我离开足球后悟到的最重要的一个道理。退役时，我的赞助商“佳得乐”在一次会议上给了我一个惊喜，他们计划为我拍一个送别广告。广告主题是“忘记我”。他们看透了我，他们知道我想要留下的就是确保我奉献一生的这项体育运动在未来获得成功。如果我的名字被忘记了，那就意味着我之后的那些女人们在打破记录，夺取桂冠，并把这项运动推向新的高度。拍摄这个广告时，我哭了。

一年后，我在训练我10岁女儿所在的足球队。我一直带着她们，直到她们夺得了冠军。有一天，我带球队热了热身，做了一点射门训练。我跟她们讲了我退役时的一个故事。其中一个小女孩仰头看着我说：“所以，你退役前是干什么的？”我低头看着她，回答道：“踢足球。”她又问：“噢，那你是为谁踢球的呢？”我答道：“美利坚合众国。”她又说：“噢，那就意味着你认识阿莱士·摩根喽？”许愿的时候要小心啊，巴纳德的同学们。她们忘了我。

但那也没什么。我并不害怕退役后被人忘记。我害怕的是失去足球运动给予我的身份。我把自己定义为足球运动员艾比·瓦姆巴赫——我出现在球队中，把自己百分之百奉献给我的球队，和我的狼群并肩作战，为下一代创造更美好的未来。没了足球，我又会是谁呢？退役几个月后，我开始创造新的生活。我遇到了格伦农，还有了三个孩子，我成了妻子、母亲、企业主和活动家。你们知道我现在是谁吗？我还是那个艾比。我还是出场，还是会百分之百地奉献自己——但是奉献给新的团队。我仍然日日奋斗，为下一代创造更美好的未来。

你们看，不是足球成就了我，而是我把自己带向了足球。而且我无论去往何处，我就是我。你们猜怎么样？你们一样也可以。今天你们就要离开校园，往后的每一天里，不要只问自己“我想要做什么？”而要问自己“我想要成为什么人？”因为我领悟到的最重要的道理就是你所做的永远不能定义你。你是谁才能定义你。巴纳德的女士们，你们是谁，是狼。

今日坐在你周围的是你们的狼群。环顾四周。前进，你们可以成功。不要失去彼此。离开这片圣地时要团结一心，共同攻向山谷，成为我们的救星。