While I was reading “The First Day” by Edward P. Jones, there was one line that grabbed my attention, when the narrator says, “long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother”. This made me wonder why someone would even say this. I felt eager to read on and find out more about the list of reasons why she was ashamed. However, it seemed like the mom was helping to prepare for the first day of school and nothing seemed odd at all. I got frustrated when I found out that the mom cannot read or write because as the daughter, shouldn’t you be helping your mom when she needs it most? I realized that it was her first day of school and she didn’t want her mom to ruin her reputation already. I remember my first days of school each year, I was worried about all the what-ifs so I can understand where she’s coming from. Overall, I would say that I experienced a wave of emotions from the start to the end of the text.