I grew up in Townsville, North Queensland and a normal Saturday for my family would be watching my brother and sister play, while mum and dad armed me with a hockey stick and $5 so I could run wild around the hockey field, trying to emulate my siblings and buy as many lollies as I could at the canteen.

Growing up in a small town, the hockey community was and is, very family-friendly. Because mum and dad were so embedded in that community, I always had someone to look at for me at my club, WESTS.

Another upside of playing in a small town, meant I had the opportunity to play up in grades, with and against girls much older than me. This really helped me to grow my game early.

I was a pretty shy kid but when I was on the field, I felt comfortable and excited to be out there - I was also lucky that I had an older sister to keep an eye out for me.

Throughout my time in Townsville my love of the game grew immensely. I trained consistently hard and earned my spot in talent I.D programs, Townsville rep teams and state teams.

When I finished school, I made the difficult decision to leave my beloved family and move to Brisbane to pursue my hockey career with the Queensland Academy of Sport.

I took a gap year and trained hard with a narrowed focus to make the national team before the Rio 2016 Olympics, as playing at an Olympic Games was the ultimate goal for me.

Cathy Freeman was an inspiration of mine. Seeing her win gold at Sydney 2000 just fuelled something in me. Watching her and later, Sally Pearson, made me so hungry to perform on the world stage.

My coach at the time, Des King, helped me develop as a player and instilled belief in me that I was on the right path to achieve the same things my idols had and after two years of hard work in Brisbane, I was rewarded with a spot in the national squad.

I remember receiving the email confirming my selection and just staring at it for ages, then I started crying. I was so happy to have been selected. After taking a moment to pull myself together, I called my parents who were over the moon.

Once again, I said goodbye to the new friends I made in Brisbane and jumped on a plane headed for Perth, starting a new chapter in my life.

In Perth, I trained with the squad for 6-7 months before making my debut for the Hockeyroos in September 2015.

I felt quite nervous but, at the same time, very prepared because I knew that I had really earned my spot on the field.

The actual game went so fast but I had an absolute blast. I didn't play my best game ever, but I performed well for a debut. I scored my first international goal in my second game the next day so that was the cherry on top.

Although I was extremely excited as I had finally achieved the goal I had set years before, I also knew that making this was only the start – I still had a long way to go if I wanted to achieve my biggest goal, an Olympic gold medal, but getting myself to the Olympics was going to be even harder than I thought...

Stay tuned for Part 2 of Steph's Olympic Diaries, coming soon