As a child, I was a ballerina who also happened to play tackle football (what can I say? I contain multitudes). I’m the daughter of a collegiate football player, and my neighborhood friends were mostly boys. Our version of The Sandlot was football at the local elementary school.
In the summers, when my mom would send me outside to play with instructions not to return until it got dark, my options were to read or play alone or to join the boys on the gridiron. I think maybe my deep competitive streak began during those summers with my need to prove to the boys that I belonged on the field (to their credit, I was always welcome with open arms, and they tackled me just as hard as they tackled each other).