Early Work – Reader Response #1

Which essay do you find most effective and why? The essay From the Mind of a Statistic by Tesha Harris is more effective to me because having to make the choice between life and death is not an easy one. There are so many different paths that someone can take when in a situation like Tesha Harris’. Abortion is a worldwide and very controversial topic. The reader can visualize Tessa’s situation by putting themselves in her place. For example, if the reader had to make the decision of whether or not to get rid of the baby they could weigh the pros and cons that come with having to make that difficult choice. The pro of having the abortion is not having the responsibility of taking care of a child but the con would be that the decision of killing a child would weigh on a persons conscious at the same time. Tesha knew that she couldn’t take care of a child at the time, even though she did reconsider, so she had to swallow the tough pill and have the abortion. The reader could relate to Tesha because they might have gone through a crisis similar to hers or past experience, something that would weigh heavy on the mind for days,weeks, or months to come. Such as a bad car accident or seeing seeing several people injured badly. You can have a lot of anxiety towards yourself and having thinking things are gonna happen that more than likely won’t. “What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head“ (Anne Lamott Pg. 33). In conclusion the reader should learn to think before doing something. You may regret doing some of the things you’ve done.