This poetic narrative aims to explore lived experiences of a language school teacher in a poor remote island in Vietnam. This article gives insights into how teacher identity was shaped through the eyes of a school teacher and how she struggled to rise to the challenge to become a better teacher version of herself. The self-portraits of how her identity was constructed and reconstructed unveil a sketch of bamboos embracing the aspiration of overcoming external factors to thrive and bloom in barren rocky soil and the harsh environmental conditions.