Growing up with three older brothers and being the youngest and the only girl, my mom always made me tough. She's taught me over the years how to be a strong, independent woman, how to carry yourself in a positive way and anything that my brothers can do, I can do.

Of course I want to bring home a gold medal, and that's what I'm planning on doing. For me, that's not pressure. It's a chance to show the world who I am.

It was natural for me to go to local tournaments with my mother and watch my brothers compete and sometimes be left with my mom at home while my dad would take my brothers away to different tournaments and competitions. So I started doing everything they did.

Do not sit next to my mother when she is watching one of her children compete because you will have fingernails down your back. She is a nervous wreck.

You have chickens?' That's what nearly everyone asks next, after they find out about our family pets. They just need to make sure they heard me correctly. Perhaps it's because I don't come across to most as a rural-loving farm girl.

I believe in family values, and I believe that we all ought to be able to have a family and marry if you want to. I don't think the government should be in that business of denying people the fundamental right to marry.

All my main characters have got bits of me, bits of my family, bits of my friends.

It can be tough to find areas where Left and Right can agree. Consider the well-being of children: Americans often disagree about how to raise kids, how to educate them, even what to feed them.