Entering the academy as an adult, working-class student in a program that prepared me for university, and subsequently as an undergraduate student, challenged me in many ways, especially in learning how to write in the language of the academy. Employing an arts-based and auto-ethnographic approach, I discuss some of my experiences in the academy, drawing attention to language usage in expository writing while focusing on written wounding comments from teaching assistants on my marked papers. This thesis reveals how teaching assistants' written comments can wound and traumatize students, injuring their spirit. This work raises awareness about how story-telling can also help build self-confidence, can empower and can foster peaceful environments that enable students to heal and recover academically from invisible wounds. It also shows how students may gain spiritual strength for academic success to solve and respond to trauma in the academy. The learning objectives are to share my story, extend the discussion to a critique of the academy, and to point to broader questions of students' resistance and survival in the academy.