"Absolutely. I wanted to take the DUI and turn it into a positive. Something that was going to help me not just get better, but be a better person, and maybe help other people who are struggling. This DUI might end up being the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Being put in jail, being shamed in the media, allowed me to focus on what was important — and that’s allowed me to save my life.""Soccer kept me somewhat in check. I could self-medicate for only specific, short periods of time, but then I’d have to go back into training. So I could keep some balance in my life. But then when I retired, I didn’t have the 'protection' I thought soccer gave me. I have to be able to create stable environments for myself, without somebody else telling me I have to run, or I have to do this. Those are adult maintenance things I wasn’t necessarily exposed to as much because I had this whole soccer thing. Without that structure, I ended up feeling overwhelmed.""Exactly. And that’s the hardest thing, as an athlete, that I’ve had to adjust to. Not just with the drinking, but with just life maintenance things — paying bills, knowing what my schedule is, getting up and making myself accountable.""Yeah. That’s a crazy thing to admit, right? I do feel like my maturity was stunted a bit. I think it’s a balance a lot of [retired] athletes struggle to figure out. There’s so many things you now have to take charge over. It’s stressful.""My mom and I have had an evolving relationship. It’s so much better now than when I first came out to her. We have a fantastic relationship now. I got to a really cool psychological place. I’d been saying accept me for who I am, accept me for who I am, and I realized, I wasn’t accepting her for who she was.""Not only that, but when she was brought up, she wasn’t brought up with the gay rights stuff, the women’s rights stuff. I think there are a lot of older women out there who are like that. So much has changed, even just in my lifetime. But we still have to respect the older generation, even if we don’t agree with them. Their feelings are still valued. That’s a higher level of consciousness.""I realized, how can I expect something from her that I’m not giving to her? I want this compassion, but I’m really not giving it. It’s a very simple thing. I think I was blinded by hurt. But realizing that allowed me to really see her and to talk to her about some really hard stuff.""I understand why some people were offended by it, but I wasn’t. Terry had zero bad intentions. I think that she was just asking questions that posed themselves from the book. I am a person who figures out life through experience, and when I was 17, that was definitely something I needed to experience. And I wrote about it in the book. So I think she was picking up on that, and that’s where the question came from. I wasn’t offended.""Yeah. Whenever I have a moment of time, I’m going to be on the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton. I am such a big fan of Hillary, and the symbol of her being in the Oval Office as a woman is enough for me to want to vote for her, not to mention her decorated career and her ideas for where she wants to take the country. So I will be there supporting her."[For us], for a long time it was, 'Oh, well the men’s soccer team gets more sponsorship dollars, and more viewership.' But when the women played in the 2015 World Cup and we had more viewers watch our final than any other game that’s ever been played, then that whole argument goes out the door. We’re the team that everybody else takes their cues from, and that’s really important for women — not just in other sports, but for women being badass and kicking ass and taking names — in Hollywood, in business, across the board. Women see us and say, 'Hey, if they can do it, so can I.' It’s so much bigger than one athlete being able to pay her mortgage. We want to be treated equally."This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.