This article presents a case study on the use of expressivist writing pedagogy as a practice of identity construction for an adolescent Chinese-Speaking English Language Learner (ELL) in a 6-12, college preparatory, international boarding school context. The study implements a narrative inquiry/content analysis framework to analyze themes of second language (L2) memoir and poetry as safehouse writing, as a dialogue with identity across time, and as a tool to negotiate the ambivalence associated with the second language learning experience.