In this paper authoethnography was used as a process and product to explore one leader's journey from the classroom, as a student and a teacher, to opening a new school as the school's principal. These experiences create the backdrop of a larger narrative about public schooling and leadership. Traditional notions of learning, teaching, schooling and leading, contribute to the inequity and injustice found in schools. Nevertheless, schools do not have to beget oppression. They can be liberatory when leadership for social justice is an act of love.