She could be any young woman with a new bub.

But she is not.

She is Shelley Watts. An Olympian and boxing Commonwealth gold medalist.

She looks a million miles away from the focused, ambitious young woman the public came to know through her impressive sporting feats.

And she is.

Shelley Watts has had an incredible career marked with some huge highs and devastating lows.

So who is Shelley Watts and what has she learnt in 32 years?

She was born in Laurieton. She has two younger brothers.

Her mother worked behind the bar at the Laurieton Hotel. Her father at the wood mill in Nowendoc, near Walcha

"My parents loved us dearly but they couldn't give us a crazy amount of things," she said.

But her mother was ambitious for her.

"I remember coming home with my report card and I got all As and one B at Laurieton Public School," she said.

"My mum said, 'Don't do that again, don't get another B'.

"My mum had a different relationship with my brothers to me.

"She took advantage of having a young girl who was outgoing, curious and driven."

When she was 11 Shelley announced to the family she was going to be a lawyer and have four kids.

Why law?

"I like to argue," she said.

And the plan appeared to be going smoothly.

She studied law at Southern Cross University in Lismore.

But then disaster struck.

A natural at sport she snapped her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) playing soccer.

Believing she knew better than the doctors she refused to rest.

A month later playing touch footy in Laurieton it all went awry.

"It fully snapped then," she said sheepishly.

"I had to have a ACL reconstruction which was a terrible low point because I had always been sporty and I thought I was never going to do sport again," he said.

She describes it as the "most excruciating pain" she has experienced.

After months of feeling sorry for herself an opportunity emerged.

A friend who had aspirations to go to the Olympics in boxing needed a training partner.

She decided to be a "human punching bag".

And she loved it.

"My love for boxing came from a terrible situation in my life," she said.

"If it wasn't for my injury I wouldn't have found it."

She acknowledges boxing has a "bad tag as being aggressive and violent".

But she said that couldn't be further from the truth.

"It is so skillful, it is a lot like a chess match in a sporting arena where you and your opponent are trying to find an opening to score a point."

After six months she began to get the upper hand on her friend who refused to spar with her.

Realising she had spent six months learning a craft and it would be a waste to throw it away she entered a competition.

Her first fight was May 29, 2010 in Armidale.

She won easily.

Soon she was NSW champion. Then the Australian champion.

A few weeks later she found herself in Germany competing with the best in the world.

For a kid who had never been overseas it was a dream come true.

She left the trip early after getting sick but it gave her a taste of success.

Over the next couple of years she would devote herself completely to boxing (and study law on the side), moving to Canberra to train at the Australian Institute of Sport.

But something was holding her back.

In the lead-up to the Commonwealth Games she had a light bulb moment.

"I was always driven but I knew deep down I didn't have self-belief," she said.

"When you don't believe in yourself you will always find someone else or something else to blame," she said.

"Whenever things were not working out I would always blame my knee and ACL," she said.

"If we had to run for a time and I wasn't going to make it or another girl, especially someone who I was going to have to compete against was going to beat me, I would use my knee as an excuse.

"I would stop running and walk around the track and I would be limping, almost fake limping.

"It was an excuse, a fallback, 'I couldn't do that because of my knee'.

"I remember in 2014 I decided to believe in myself and I had the weirdest sensation preparing for the Commonwealth Games.

"I was having to do a time and I was buggered.

"But I remember this time having a different thought-process.

"I could have stopped and limped around the track and said it was my knee but instead I remembered thinking 'Your knee is going to be fine because you have muscle around it, put your foot down because you are going to reap the reward'.

"I had a choice, I could take responsibility or I could not."

The rest is history.

She won gold at the Commonwealth Games.

She came back a hero.

Her hometown of Laurieton was thrilled.

But she wasn't finished.

Her sights were set on the Olympics.

"From the moment I qualified in March 2016 for the Olympics it was just the most euphoric, amazing feeling," she said.

"Going to the Olympics you are there because you are one of the best in the world.

"It is a relief and the reward for years of hard work and sacrifices.

"Only the top 12 boxers in the world go."

She describes the experience as the highlight of her boxing career.

"If I was given 20 words to explain that experience I couldn't do it justice."

But she didn't come back with the result she had hoped - knocked out in the first round.

And like so many athletes she caught the "Olympic blues" when she returned home.

"Suddenly I lost my identity, you come from the Olympic Games and suddenly the AIS has no respect for you."

She came back to Laurieton for the first time in her life directionless.

So she ate.

And ate and ate.

She put on 30kg.

"I think I used food so I didn't have to think about the fact I was depressed and didn't have to think about getting myself mentally well," she said.

"It is a funny feeling because you know you need to stop doing it, not picking up that extra doughnut but you almost can't physically stop yourself from doing it.

"You are constantly berating yourself, 'why are you doing it' and it is a really weird sensation."

Why couldn't she stop?

"I was missing something in my life and I thought boxing would give it to me and it didn't," she said.

"But I think I was also self-sabotaging myself.

"In case I didn't make it further, I'd been the Commonwealth Champion, I'd been to the Olympics but what happens if I didn't make it further?

"I was still training hard but a lot of people thought I wasn't because I wasn't losing the weight but what they didn't know was that I was constantly eating."

She didn't make weight to compete in the Commonwealth Games.

But despite the setback something just as exciting came along.

She met a man.

"I was thirty and I had never been giddy about a guy," she said.

"A friend who I was training with was married to my partners' best mate.

"They made the decision we would be a good couple because we had similar values and both loved boxing."

That friend proved correct.

Mick was a single father raising two children.

Unlike Shelley he was quiet.

But they just clicked.

"I found my partner Mick at a brilliant time as I had just missed out on making weight at the Commonwealth trials," she said.

"Our relationship works because we are both alike and also different.

"We can talk about everything and nothing at the same time."

She continued to train not ready to give up boxing yet and graduated as a criminal defence lawyer.

"Not everyone who goes to court is a criminal.," she said.

"Most of them are people who have made a mistake and they have to deal with the consequences of that mistake through the court system."

With the romance going strong, her career as a lawyer blossoming and the Tokyo Olympics encroaching she knew she had a tough choice.

She asked the universe for a sign.

A month later she found out she was pregnant.

Her son Chase James Davidson was born on September 24 this year.

She was unsure how she would go with motherhood because she had always been so goal driven.

But she fell in love again.

"In six weeks you do almost nothing that people would think of value, you sit there and you look at him for more hours and you don't get anything done but yet you are so busy the entire day."

She is amazed at how natural it feels.

What does she hope to impart to her children?

"Embrace the doors," she said.

"When the world knocks you back don't think poor me. Instead of thinking that door has closed there is always another one around the corner," she said.

"Without those mistakes and setbacks you don't learn to move forward in a different direction.

"Also if you leave yourself open and are willing to new experiences you will have some of the best experiences of your life.

"And if you believe in yourself and work hard and are willing to take responsibility you can achieve whatever you want to be."

She is currently on maternity leave from law. She will resume practising law next year at local firm Tony Cox Lawyers and Conveyancing.

She is still involved in boxing, an Athlete Boxing Ambassador with the International Olympic Committee for Tokyo 2020 and part of the Boxing Task Force that is tasked with coordinating the Olympic boxing program at next year's games.

Locally she runs boxing classes at some schools.

What are her goals now?

"I don't have amazing or far-reaching goals at the moment," she said.

"I just want to make every single day worthwhile in a little way.

"Holding Chase for 10 minutes longer, making sure my stepkids are loved on a single day."

Simple goals but just as important.

The Port News series is called In My Life. We meet people of the Hastings and ask them what they have learnt in their lives. If you have a suggestion for the series email carla.mascarenhas@portnews.com.au