Most of us on the CNN Student News staff were here well past midnight on Thursday, covering the Iowa caucuses.  It reminded me of the night of the 2004 presidential election, when I left at around 4:00 a.m. and was one of the first ones out!

It's part of the challenge of TV journalism, though.  You never know when you'll find yourself assigned to late-breaking stories, overnight shifts (I once worked from 10pm-8am for seven months), or weekend call-ins that put your plans on the back burner.  On the plus side, you're always learning something new, and you get the chance to share that with people all around the world.  It's a career that's both easy and necessary to love.