I remember my first hurricane like it was yesterday. It was 7 years ago, and it began my fascination with the science of meteorology. With all of the recent hurricanes and typhoons going on in the world, I thought I'd share this anecdote about my life.

I am from Westchester, New York, growing up I had (thankfully) never experience a hurricane. I would hear about them on the news, and I began to develop a huge fear of them because the news would make hurricanes out to be like evil villains that aim to ruin people's lives. Since none of these villains came and attacked my area, I thought I lived in an area that had some type of shield against hurricanes.

In 2011, Hurricane Irene broke the idea of my town having a shield for me. It was the end of August, right around my birthday and I had just turned 12 years old when I heard that Hurricane Irene was going to hit my area. The days leading up to the storm's arrival, my anxiety and fear skyrocketed through the roof.

I knew next to nothing about hurricanes before Hurricane Irene, and I believed that all Hurricanes would rip off the roofs of all of the houses it comes in contact with. That's not true, a lot of damage that hurricanes cause comes from flooding, and that happens due to storm surge and massive amounts of rain. Wind does play a portion in some of the damage, but not a lot unless it's super strong Hurricane.

During Hurricane Irene, I got to learn a lot about hurricanes through my dad. He's part of the reason why I fell in love with meteorology because when I get scared of things, I want to know how they work because there's no way I can avoid a hurricane coming from my area, so I ask questions. My dad knew the answers to questions, and it was in the days prior to the storm where I was freaking out the most.

My dad is from Long Island, and he would tell me that they experienced Hurricanes all of the time. He would tell me that they were no big deal, and that the worst they could do in New York is cause some minor flooding. He would tell me about the hurricanes that hit my area prior to Irene, and how they sucked, but it didn't destroy the town like other hurricanes have done in other areas.

He said that in New York, the storms aren't super severe because of the location and the climate in New York. My dad explained the scale of hurricanes, and how they could be a tropical depression, tropical storm, or an actual hurricane when it reaches a certain speed. However, if it was either a tropical depression or tropical storm, they would be just big rain storms on a windy day.

My dad knew that I loved rain storms and he said it would be like the best rain storm of my life. I was still incredibly nervous about a hurricane coming and hitting my area, and I remember the day before the storm. It was super cloudy and gross, and my babysitter said that Irene was on the verge.

I began to have the biggest breakdown, I didn't want to swim, spend time outdoors, I just wanted to be in my basement safe from the storm. Those next two days, I spent a ton of my time in the basement because it was the only place where I felt safe. I knew that wind wasn't going to destroy my house, but I couldn't help but be afraid that it might.

I was 12 years old at the time, and I just hated severe weather in general, a hurricane was going to make my fear worse. There was one time during the two days that the storm was over my area (hurricanes are slow moving storms, it's how they gain their power), when I was outside with my dad. It was cloudy, but it wasn't raining, and we were doing an errand. My dad said that we were in the eye of the storm, where everything is calm and it's not over, but it will be soon.

I remember asking more questions and my dad answered them to the best of his ability. It was during this storm that I began to understand weather and began to love it more. I think it was that following Christmas when I got a weather field guide because I heard about in science class and I wanted one for the weather. I am a total nerd, but this really began to give me a vision of what I wanted to do with my life at a young age.

Ever since Hurricane Irene, I haven't been that afraid of Hurricanes. Now, I love them, and it's awesome because during Hurricane Sandy the following year, I wasn't that scared (I was 13, I was bound to overreact due to fear). Hurricanes are still evil villains in my mind, but they're really cool evil villains that need to be understood more in depth.

To tie this all to current events, Hurricane Florence did impact a lot of people in North Carolina. It has created massive flooding and lead to the deaths of at least 14 people. To any of those people who've been impacted, I'm sorry. If you want to help and provide disaster relief for the victims of Hurricane Florence, please go to this link.