My name is Karen Hudson. I was born in Twentynine Palms, Calif., where my father was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center. We moved to Hawaii shortly after I was born; my father retired from the military when I was young and we settled in his home state of Oklahoma. Living in California and Hawaii sounds glamorous, but the truth is I have no memories of either place. I wasn’t born in Oklahoma but it is my home since it’s all I’ve ever known.

I’ve always been interested in journalism, even before I knew what it was. As a child, I loved to watch the news. My friends played with Barbie dolls but I stood in front of the mirror and pretended to be a news anchor. I used to stay up late every night to watch the news with my parents. I remember my father once said, “I wonder if there are any other fourth-graders at your school who watch the news with their parents and ask as many questions as you do.”

I wrote for the school newspapers in junior high and high school, and I was one of 35 teenagers selected for the Teen People magazine Teen News Team. I had one article published in Teen People. I bought every copy at Barnes and Noble the day the magazine hit the newsstands.

I briefly attended Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas and majored in advertising/public relations. I still had a nagging feeling that I should still pursue broadcast journalism; that gut instinct was validated when I was selected to be a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show. I responded to a post on the show’s website about the book Tuesdays With Morrie. My father had died of Lou Gehrig’s disease, just like the main character in the book. I told the show how the book helped me make sense of my loss and they flew to Fort Worth to film a segment about me. I spent the day with a producer who encouraged me to reconsider broadcast journalism. “You’re a natural on camera. Believe me, we don’t see that very often,” she said.

I left TCU after my freshman year; it’s a great school but it wasn’t the right place for me. I attended Oklahoma City Community College and Rose State College before I transferred to the University of Oklahoma.

I’m currently a broadcast journalism junior at OU. Right now, I’m torn between the dream jobs of co-anchoring with Anderson Cooper or working as a sideline reporter for ESPN. I spent winter break in Puerto Rico for the Travel Writing course so I also like the idea of working as a travel writer or the host of a travel show. I’m still not exactly sure what I want to be when I grow up.

I know that multimedia journalism will help me no matter which path I follow. It’s important for all of us to learn about digital media and I’m excited to gain new skills that will help me in the future.