In looking at the narratives, compositionists should notice several points of divergence between the physiological processes at work in my and Baxter’s traumatic experiences: the degrees and frequency of dissociation mentioned, the degrees of fear, horror, and shame adverted to, the degrees of avoidance behaviors engaged in, and the degrees of arousal and re-experiencing during and after the traumatic events. In the next few paragraphs, I discuss these points as I unpack the preceding narratives. Next, I discuss in scientific terms the distinctions between an orderly progression of a stress response and a progression that develops into PTSD. In the following section on memory formation, I delve into highly technical neurobiological material to show how trauma can affect the content and accessibility of what is remembered and can affect the beliefs trauma victim form about themselves. Even though the material synthesized here is quite technical, I have attempted to explain how each point contributes to my thesis. While compositionists may not find this information as compelling as I do, the scientific material is included to illuminate the contexts of so many first-year students’ lives and to extend the tradition of scholarship in rhetoric and composition by examining these contexts more closely.