Get it out of your system

I am currently reading the book, Crafting the Personal Essay: a Guide for Writing and Publishing Creative Nonfiction by Dinty W. Moore.

As part of the book, Professor Moore has writing exercises. This is the first.

I don't remember writing many essays. It could be that that writing has been blurred into the reporting and news stories I've since written.
When I think back about what I wanted to write through those high school and college courses, I think about who I was at the time. The passions in my life then were horses and music. I probably wanted to write about horses.  I do remember an elementary school essay about a day in the life of my cat. I still have that one, it makes me laugh.

So, what do I want to write about now. I want to write about what I reported on for so many years. I want to talk to farmers and write about agriculture and how it has changed I want to write about farm families that have left the farm, families like mine. My great grandfather farmed about a thousand acres in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Not much by today's standards, but a lot using horses. Today, of eight great grandchildren, non of us farm, there is involvement in agriculture, but not on the farm. I want to explore the factors that went into that transition. I think it is something that has affected many farm families beyond my own.

I want to write about safety. how to be safe on the farm, and in town, what to do in emergencies before the responders can get to you.

I want to write about horses. So I guess that passion has stayed with me, it will never leave me. I will be the old lady in a turquoise shirt and purple cowboy hat.