I'm looking forward to the change. I have to say this about my job: One day is never the same as the next. And that has held true for 18 years -- it's always something different.

It has been a rocky road at times. But the rewards, I think looking back, far outweigh the negatives.

They still are skeptical. Across the board, whether she's a rookie or the most experienced fire service woman, when a woman walks through a door she has to prove she can do that job. When a man walks through the door, it's assumed he can do that job and has to prove that he can't.

As a friend, you can't change her condition, but you can help her be as happy and healthy as possible.

Today is a really bad day, Syd. A really, really bad day. Sometimes in life, we need a few bad days in order to keep the good ones in perspective

We were feeling really powerless and frustrated. We were literally trying to imagine what we could do to change how we were being talked about and represented and portrayed. I don't think there's any other family celebration that's so public and so well covered.