"Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day." The "memorable day" Pip is talking about is the day he went to Miss Havisham's house. Since she is of a higher class it was a different place for Pip. Both Miss Havisham and Estella were convincing Pip that he was common and since Pip liked Estella so much he was trying to be uncommon. Since he was trying to be uncommon, he didn't want to apprentice Joe anymore because blacksmith was a lower class regular job. He likes this girl that doesn't even treat him well so much that it puts his life to an abrupt halt.

The day that started my chain was about four years ago. My dad and my brother got into a fight for reasons I didn't know which I later found out about. Life was good before that day. Our family was good, sports were good, and it couldn't have been any better. When they got in the fight my brother and dad were so mad at each other that my dad kicked my brother out of the house and he was only sixteen. That one night changed the rest of my life. This was right when my baseball team was doing really good so baseball kept me occupied and happy, but every once in a while David would screw up and it was pretty hard to function. Within that two year span there were so manny ups and downs, thorns and flowers, that I could have sworn I was on a roller coaster.