Abby Wambach, two-time Olympic soccer gold medalist and FIFA World Player of the Year (2012), who is also lesbian and (since her 2017 marriage to author Glennon Doyle Melton) a mom, gave the commencement speech at Barnard College earlier this month. It’s well worth watching for her advice and inspiration on life, career, community, and leadership.
I encourage you to watch the video and Wambach’s stirring delivery of the speech, but you can also read the text here. Among other things, she observes, “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.”
And she advises:
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.
That’s only a glimpse of the wisdom she offers. Here’s the rest.