Graduate education is designed to cultivate experts with knowledge and skills that will contribute to the field of student affairs by advancing research and enhancing practice. This edict often falls through, however, when students return to their doctoral programs after a leave of absence. I conducted a qualitative study to better understand the often-overlooked experiences of graduate students returning from temporary leaves of absence. Re-entry students are a unique population of non-traditional students. The main research question driving this study was "What are the experiences of doctoral students in student affairs and related fields who voluntarily departed their programs and successfully returned to the same programs?" Related questions addressed: the types of events/situations that resulted in departure, the types of support and strategies utilized by individuals navigating these events. I also paid attention to the role of agency, specifically in the ways individuals made decisions navigating their unique experiences. Participants were recruited through the internet via social media platforms of Facebook and Instagram. By applying a narrative inquiry methodology, I heard the unique stories of 10 individuals who have navigated departure and re-entry in their doctoral programs. Based on theoretical works in transition theory via Schlossberg et al. (1995) and transition as a form of being-becoming (Delueze & Guattari, 1987; Gravett, 2021), I identified common themes that demonstrated how graduate students experienced transitions of departure and return, as well as the ways these experiences changed their perception of themselves as graduate students. The key themes that emerged from my findings include: a need for clearer guidance about the departure and the return processes, as well as returning to the campus environment; a desire for administrative support and community; and the need for programming to address the mental health of re-entry students. Recommendations are provided for graduate programs in higher education, student affairs practitioners, and graduate students, as well as for future research. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]