The emotional and cognitive work of becoming a teacher is often unknown to preservice teachers, leaving many to negotiate professional identities without support from teacher educators. This article examines how one preservice teacher, Ava Mendon, used language to negotiate professional identities and to build professional confidence during her teacher-education experiences. Multiple in-depth interviews were analyzed using discourse analysis techniques to reveal three key experiences that propelled Ava to negotiate her professional identity. Findings indicate the need for teacher educators to deliberately provide opportunities for preservice teachers to negotiate identities in teacher-education experiences to develop professional confidence as beginning teachers.