I'm thankful that my career at Oklahoma was marked with consistent leadership in president David Boren and director of athletics Joe Castiglione.

Something called 'the Oklahoma Standard' became known throughout the world. It means resilience in the face of adversity. It means a strength and compassion that will not be defeated.

I grew up in southeastern Oklahoma on a working cattle ranch, and it was always very romantic to me: The West, the cowboy, the Western way of life.

After I released 'Jesus, Take the Wheel,' people started saying, Oh, it's kind of risky. You're coming out with a religious song. And I was thinking, Really? I grew up in Oklahoma; I always had a close relationship with God. I never thought it was risky in the least. If anything, I thought it was the safest thing I could do.

In my wildest imagination, I never thought that the fifth of six children born to Helen and Buddy Watts - in a poor black neighborhood, in the poor rural community of Eufaula, Oklahoma - would someday be called Congressman.

When I was leaving college, getting ready to graduate with a degree in finance, I had job interviews for months and months - and nothing really was moving like a real opportunity. Meanwhile, a lot of my wrestling teammates at Oklahoma had started getting into MMA training.

Growing up in Texas and Oklahoma, Ben Johnson was more famous than John Wayne to some of us. I knew him. I worked with him on a low budget film years ago, and we'd sit around at night while waiting for a shot.

As Oklahoma attorney general, it is not my job to formulate or implement Oklahoma's plan, but it is my job to preserve Oklahoma's right to do so - particularly when the Clean Air Act so clearly recognizes that Oklahomans, and not federal bureaucrats, are best situated to determine Oklahoma energy and environmental policies.

At every juncture as Oklahoma's attorney general, Scott Pruitt has consistently chosen to undermine and attack environmental safeguards - not to defend them.

An Oklahoma girl like me wouldn't even know how to be a diva. I'm just a person who has a cool job. I love to be at home. I rarely go to clubs... and I always wear underwear! I just know I'd fall down, and that's not for everyone to see.

I wonder what would have happened if automation and computers had existed when 'Oklahoma!' was having its out-of-town try-out, and three days before closing in Boston, when it was still called 'Away We Go,' they added a new song called 'Oklahoma!' I don't think that could happen today. It's almost impossible to change musicals on the go now.

We filmed part of it here at the Alex Theatre in Los Angeles, and then we filmed the other part of it in Oklahoma because that's where I live. It's called 'Darci Lynne: My Hometown Christmas.' We wanted to incorporate that I celebrate Christmas just like any other kid.

We always go to downtown Oklahoma City to look at all the Christmas lights that have been put up... We go to the Christmas Eve service at church, and we always beg my parents to open a present - just one present - on Christmas Eve. We get them to cave.

My first real job, I sold Christmas trees when I was twelve for extra money. I did that until I was fifteen. Then I bagged groceries, and I worked at the first Borders ever in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Have you read 'The Grapes of Wrath?' That was my family. My dad was a sharecropper in western Oklahoma. When the dust storms came and everything got wiped out, they came to California. The guys with the mattresses on the tops of their cars in the movie? That was the way it was.

I grew up in Oklahoma and Missouri, and I just loved film. My folks would take us to the drive-in on summer nights, and we'd sit on the hood of the car. I just had this profound love for storytelling.

Something called 'the Oklahoma Standard' became known throughout the world. It means resilience in the face of adversity. It means a strength and compassion that will not be defeated.

In my wildest imagination I never thought that the fifth of six children born to Helen and Buddy Watts - in a poor black neighborhood in the poor rural community of Eufaula Oklahoma - would someday be called Congressman.

Oklahomans value our children and our seniors. Oklahomans value traditions of faith. Oklahomans value our heroes our veterans. Oklahomans value innovation and the creative arts.

What unites Oklahomans today is what has always united us: Our unshakable faith. Our love of family and compassion for others. The unlimited promise of a hopeful future.

I get around OK with a toolbox. As a kid I picked up skills following my dad through the oil fields of Oklahoma and West Texas. My wife Janine is hard to impress but she does think it's cool when I fix things around the house.

It's harder but we're still finding oil in Oklahoma today. The bar has been raised on startup companies but it can still be done. Every regulation and every rule limits you but yes it can still be done. That's the beauty of living in a free country and having the freedom to have an idea and become an entrepreneur.