No matter the natural disaster I've covered, whether it's a wildfire or flood, I always come back with a much greater perspective.
Ginger Zee
Professional highlight of 2011 was definitely getting the job at ABC.
I'm self-deprecating - always.
Ten days before I started my job at ABC News, I checked myself into a mental health hospital.
I always had becoming a meteorologist as my goal from the second I decided, while I was in school, just to study meteorology.
To witness history and science being made in front of your eyes is the rush.
There have been struggles and challenges that I have faced that few know about but I hope will help others going through the same thing.
I didn't study broadcasting in school, but I did a lot of internships, and I dedicated myself so much so that I made my email password 'Todayshow10' because I wanted to be on the 'Today Show' by 2010.
I find home renovations almost traumatic. But people can create something great.
If someone hurts me on social media, I want to tell them that they've hurt me. I believe you should say what you're feeling. We should all do that, but what I've also realized is that even a negative comment is from a person who is trying to reach out. When I reply, maybe I'm reminding them that there's a deeper meaning to what they're doing.
I hope weather coverage on a national level will help folks learn to respect the power of severe weather, and weather in general, so more lives are spared.
We don't all have perfect lives, even if they are seemingly so.
Parents just want their baby to be happy and healthy, and we're giving every ounce of ourselves to do that.
The moments before I fall asleep are when my list of things to do attacks my brain.
I actually think the last time I stood with a race medal around my neck was after an eighth grade cross-country meet. I was gawky and 65 pounds soaking wet, and running 10 miles a day was no big deal.
The eye of the hurricane forms as air rotates up and out of the hurricane and some of the air that's being spun out of the top of the storm sinks back into the center. This keeps the eye of the storm relatively calm and clear.
I've been lucky to find a husband who doesn't judge my past.
Ideal day is a hot and humid morning, tornadoes develop, no one gets hurt, and we get to collect data and chase the tornadoes.
My stepfather and his large family - The Crafts - are from Chicago, so Chicago has always been home for me.
I wanted to write a story about my struggles with depression and mental health. It's an issue that needs to be talked about more.
Every woman who has been pregnant knows that it messes with your mind a little bit. You are suddenly someone else: you are a mother who is now responsible for another human being. That's awesome, but it changes who you are.
I loved watching the base of those thunderstorms, the billowing tops of the cumulonimbus, the lightning that effortlessly lit up the lake and the sky. It was gorgeous, so energetic. I was in love.
I understand the atmosphere better than I ever did before. You feel the thermals while paragliding. You are in the clouds. Chasing a storm puts you in front of the cloud, not a book. I hope to learn as I do these things.
It's fun being pregnant at the same time as someone as prominent as Kim Kardashian. Seeing her beautiful body change and morph makes me remember mine is doing the same, and although it may not always feel beautiful, it really is.
Dancing is all about your core.
I started storm-chasing at a young age.
I fought a disease. I fought a disease called depression that a lot of people fight every single day. And unlike other diseases, there is a stigma surrounding it.
I've always put my career first, and it has been difficult on my personal life.
Making it to the finale of 'Dancing with the Stars' has been a major accomplishment.
Depression, for me, has been a couple of different things - but the first time I felt it, I felt helpless, hopeless, and things I had never felt before. I lost myself and my will to live.
It's scary, the way your mind can overpower what is real and what is right.
My professional life, in a strange way, has always been going up, up, up, while my personal life was just the complete opposite.
I've been into fitness since I was 13.
Like most women, I want to stay fashionable during my pregnancy - and on TV, that means coming up with something new to wear every day for at least five months.
To tell your story, you have to include others.
I want people to know me.
I didn't choose to get anorexia. I may have made some childhood-like choices to try to control something. 'I know what I'll do: I'll just not eat.' That was the initial point, but then it spiraled and became a disease - not a choice by any means.
Anorexia is a real disease. The choice you do have is asking for help.
People see me for 30 seconds at a time, and they see someone who's got a hair and make-up team that put them together, and they're looking all right in the world, but it's not.
At home, my personal life was regularly falling apart, and from childhood on, I had a lot of chaos. I was addicted to chaos; I was addicted to self-harm, and I had to seek help at the hospital.
I grew up a 'Ginger,' and I liked having a somewhat unique name.
I don't have anything to prove, but I do like to challenge myself.
People can say whatever they want about me. They can call me ugly. But don't talk about my child.
We're all more complex than the person we put out there.
Meteorologists don't use a script, and most create their own graphics and certainly put together their own forecasts. Most of us went to school to become scientists - at least I did - and studied thermodynamics, physics, and tons of calculus to take this young science to the next level. Our accuracy is amazing and will only continue to improve.
I absolutely love the restaurant industry.
I was, am, and likely forever will be a huge mess.
I love the challenge of any adventure.
I don't think you fully get away from something like the years of depression that I went through.
Immediately surrounding the tranquil eye is the most violent part of the hurricane: the eye wall. The most intense wind speeds at the surface are found there.
