As labor-based grading contracts gain momentum in first-year writing classrooms, new kinds of response to writing take center stage. We explore how session notes composed by embedded peer tutors and students become rich tools in a writing process and create a gateway to the writing center for first-year students. By reading session notes in conversation with students' reflective writing, we put forward three key findings: Students articulate a relationship between building confidence in their writing and their willingness to seek, receive, and value feedback; students discuss how the labor required for an A pushed them to access and learn about resources outside of the classroom; and students interact with the writing center during their first semester of college, building long-term relationships with peers and with the writing center (including becoming staff members) beyond first-year writing.