on writing again

On more occasions than I ever expected, I have written about goats.

Early in my summer internship at The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, I crossed the Florida-Georgia line to write about the city of Brunswick, where goats were helping the city clear foliage. “Please do not feed the animals” was my lead. I also had a good line about a (human) kid who was an expert on the (goat) kids.  

Then I ended up working in agriculture communications, and one of my first assignments was to write the copy for a goat coloring book. Probably due to some COVID-19 quarantine boredom, I decided to write a poem about the farm’s anthropomorphized goat ambassador.

Later, still for Kentucky State University, I wrote again about how goats can help clear invasive plants. The headline was “Greatest Of All Time.”

All this to say: I’m interested in the way topics and themes seem to repeat in the journalistic or public relations writing I’ve done over the past almost decade. I wrote about South Warren High School’s football state championship; I reported from the University of Kentucky’s Citrus Bowl appearance on New Year’s Day 2019. My first-ever story published in the print edition of the Kentucky Kernel was about a donation to the UK College of Agriculture, and now my job is writing for the UK Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.

Of course, I’ve written about Alice Dunnigan again and again—but that’s no coincidence. I’ve sought out opportunities to write about similar themes, such as the DUUUVAL bike rack in Jacksonville, but even before I knew of Alice, I was passionate about the women-focused issue of the Kernel.

This week, I had another story published about a repeat topic. Current Martin-Gatton CAFE student Caroline Groth was selected as National FFA Eastern Region Vice President. When the news broke, my boss assigned me the story—because I had already written about Caroline, earlier in the summer.

But I had also already written about a UK student’s selection as National FFA Eastern Region Vice President—both Gracie Furnish and I were UK students when she earned the title in 2017-18. I wrote about it for the Kernel. Last week, while finishing up my story about Caroline, I reached out to Gracie, who was the last Wildcat to hold the title.

I’m certainly (or hopefully) still toward the beginning of my career, but I like acknowledging the patterns that have already emerged and the way I continue to build upon my past experiences. I am forever grateful to keep learning and keep writing.

And it’s only a matter of time until I write about goats again.