The journey that a practitioner takes into the realm of postgraduate research can be one that is sometimes filled with an unexpected cycle of security followed by doubt, and learning as a means of rediscovering a sense of security; there can be a continual sense of "coming back again" to familiar ground. This article is an autobiographical account of how I journeyed from the intense practice of School Deputy Principalship to the unfathomable depths of postgraduate research. I trace my transition from a knowledgeable practitioner in a school setting to that of a developing practitioner researcher undertaking a case study of servant leadership at Master's degree level. I then travel through to my current positioning as a developing researching professional about to embark on a doctoral thesis on distributed leadership practice in schools. (Contains 2 figures and 43 notes.)