There is a longstanding tradition in the Informal Essay of beginning the essay w

There is a longstanding tradition in the Informal Essay of beginning the essay with a quotation that focuses the reader’s mind on your topic and gives you something to more or less riff against in this essay.
For this, you might have a quotation in mind from your reading, or you might want to consult a book of quotations, of which there are many available online. They are organized in such a way that you can look up a keyword for your topic (for example, Empathy), and find any number of quotations from famous folks on that subject. Often there will be one of interest to you either because you agree with it or because you don’t, and responding to it can focus your writing very nicely. NB: keep track of the source of anything you quote.
Remember, for this piece you can draw on any aspect of your experience of the world as your material. Reading the books for example is one aspect of that experience, what you study, what people say to you over breakfast, what happens, a million things that pop up in your memory on any given day… these are all part of your experience. You may, for example, find in some text materials and idea styles similar to those used in your preferred text. Alternately, you may wish to bring in some similar examples from sources outside the reading list.