"It definitely helped to bring a lot of inner confidence in myself, knowing that I can do it, " said the 23-year-old, who will play 54th-ranked Romanian Monica Niculescu.

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How deeply I could dig to keep myself going, knowing that was my only option.

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Knowing the joy of baseball myself, I thought this was a fantastic idea.

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The amount of work it takes to not only build a community, but to gain the trust and support of women who program without knowing how to program much myself is an excruciatingly humbling, but worthwhile experience.

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"I find myself walking and not knowing what hospital I'm in, " she says.

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So I waited for that special time in August when we have earthquakes and hurricanes and, knowing business would be slow, devoted myself to learning the latest phone.

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While there are certainly times when I felt justified in speaking up for myself, perhaps the hardest lesson I had to learn was knowing when to just let it go.

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And maybe if I were alone, by myself, and no one had ever seen these stories, maybe then, knowing that your versions are better than some of the ones I had sent, maybe I could get into this and go with it.

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