Representing your country in the sport you love is an opportunity of a lifetime, and one that was nearly passed up on by Parkes athlete, mum and businesswoman, Casey Miles.
But when a friend asked her what story do you want to tell your kids, she knew she had to take the opportunity - and she did just that, captaining the Australian side to a gold medal win in South Africa.
Casey asked herself "Do I want to tell them (her kids) the amazing experience I had playing hockey overseas or do I want to tell them that I'd put it in the too hard basket?"
"So I bit the bullet, I went and it was definitely worth it because I had an amazing time," Casey said.
Casey was selected in the Australian team after representing NSW at the national championships in Perth last year.
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From there two teams were picked to represent Australia in Cape Town, South Africa, where one team contested the World Cup and the other the International Masters Cup.
Casey was part of the Australian Women's Over 35 team that competed in the International Masters Cup, coming up against some of the best teams in the sport who were competing for the World Cup.
Casey was also chosen by her teammates and coaches to be their captain for the tournament when they arrived in Cape Town.
"That was a nice honour and with my two vice captains, Jackie and Tess from Queensland and Victoria, it was an easy job because it was such a good bunch of girls," she said.
The first game Casey captained for Australia was up against Argentina.
"Our first game was Argentina and I thought they were going to wipe the turf with our blood but it was a really good game, we held really well walking away with a 2-0 loss," she said.
"We then played the South African first tier team and they actually won the World Cup, they absolutely annihilated us 8-0 and then we played Ireland which we probably should have won but our team was still working out position plays and who fit where."
The team changed things up a bit from there, and Casey said the team really started to connect and it showed with a 4-1 win against the USA.
"Our last game was against Zimbabwe and we won that 3-0," she added.
Casey then captained the team to a gold medal win in the gold medal match against the second tier South African team.
"They were still really good, I think it was nil all or 1-nil at half time, we had a lot of opportunities in the game, we just weren't finding the back of the board," Casey said.
"Once that first goal came we scored some impressive goals."
Casey said it was tournament that was very hard on the body physically, mentally and emotionally.
"You give it all you've got for two weeks and then when the final buzzer goes there's this relief of 'thank god that's over, my body's had it', but it's also we went over there to do a job and we succeeded so that was a very rewarding experience.
"I was honoured to be made captain and to get that gold medal in my first year it's really something else, it probably hasn't sunk in yet."
Playing for Australia isn't new for Casey as she played for Australia in the country team in 2015 and 2016.
She has also played hockey around the world including Malaysia, Singapore and a tour around New Zealand.
"Playing for Australia in the Masters grade is new to me and just knowing I still have something to offer the sport, which is always nice, just because you get older doesn't mean you have to give it up," she said.
"It's always an honour to represent the green and gold, we had a lot of Australian supporters come over to South Africa as well which made it good from the sideline perspective."
This year Casey also competed in Sydney at the National Championships where she was picked in the Trans Tasman squad.
A team from the squad will be announced at the end of the year and will compete next year against New Zealand in a three game tournament.
"Hockey is a sport you play for love, there's not a lot of money in it," she said. "It's been a hard couple of years saving for it with the business and having a young family.
"Trying to prepare for a international tournament is hard work and it's very time consuming so to come home with the gold medal is something that I can tell my kids about in years to come."
