The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to examine the phenomenon of living through struggle while learning mathematics on the part of pre-service elementary teachers. We elicited lived-experience descriptions and interviews from 46 participants enrolled in an elementary teacher education program over the course of two years. We chose to focus on struggle, as one of the research-based teaching practices recommends that teachers of mathematics engage their students in "productive" struggle. We argue that opening up an understanding of the variant ways struggle manifests in learning informs the work of teacher educators; namely, it supports our understanding of how these lived-struggle moments may influence subsequent perspectives of mathematics and mathematics teaching and learning pre-service teachers may bring with them. We end by considering the ways in which teacher educators can leverage this understanding of lived-struggle to support continued growth, such as drawing on these experiences to engage pre-service teachers in a critical examination of mathematics teaching and learning.