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Before competition, as I stand in shoulder pads and cleats, my helmet in my left hand, adrenaline flowing and my heart raging under my right, I never forget the ills of America, but for a moment I envision its potential, remember its prosperity, and give thanks to God for the land He has placed me in and the people I love who live in it.

When I was growing up in Terrell, Texas, I felt that it was not where I was supposed to be. I knew that I was meant for a different destination. I think that the minute I was born, there was something inside telling me where I would go, it's like energy - an intangible destiny.

It felt like being in the center of the world, and I felt like I was a witness to history and I knew that the whole world was watching on television. So, I could feel the collective consciousness of the world focused on this little strip of land called Seattle.

It's like trying to describe what you feel when you're standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon or remembering your first love or the birth of your child. You have to be there to really know what it's like.

One thing about God's will, you can never see God's will before it happens. You can only see at the end of it.

It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.

At times, I feel America is something that I can actually put my arms around, more than a land mass and a Constitution, something far more containable and understandable. I don't exactly know what it is, but at these times I feel completely woven into it.

After an eternity of seeking the sudden threshold of seeing and finding leaves one filled with a strange paradox of ecstasy and grief. I was born to see.

You grew up with America on the TV, and you think you know a place before you get there, and you have this idea of it in your head.

I remember that coming to America was scary for me because everything here is just bigger, better, shinier, you know?