Welcome to the Knoxville Nomad! My name is Chris O'Brien, and I'm a rising junior telecommunications student at the University of Florida. Currently, I live in Knoxville, Tennessee, for a news internship with TEGNA's WBIR-TV. Ultimately, my life goal would be to work for ESPN, ABC, NBC or CBS, but I know it's certainly a journey to reach that kind of ceiling. When I graduate, I plan on getting a job as a multimedia journalist in a local news market. You can see more of my MMJ journey on my website.

The Knoxville Nomad will be dedicated to hiking and the outdoors in the tri-state area of eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia and western North Carolina. Being from the east coast of Florida, you might think being away from the beach is eating me alive. And you'd be right, to an extent. I do miss the salty air and brisk sea breeze the ocean provides, but I actually enjoy the mountains and lakes just a bit more. There's something different about that fresh mountain air and the refreshing chill of a cool lake that hits me just a bit differently than the beach does.

Adventure is out there. Stay tuned on my quest to conquer it. Below is a picture from my trip to Virgin Falls, one of the best hikes I've ever embarked on.