In this study, using the concept of perezhivanie as an analytical tool, we were trying out new ways to investigate L2 identity taking the peripheral educational context into account. We examined how two graduates from non-academic high schools perceived their peripheral school situation through their perezhivanie, and described how this situation affected the individual trajectories of L2 identity development as well. When two students immersed themselves in marginalized classroom contexts, they have experienced academic stigma in the context of classroom community. Moreover, they all experienced emotional conflicts related to English learning. Besides, they struggled over deficit remedial L2 identity, entailing identity tensions. As they attempted to reconcile the contradictions between themselves and their circumstances, their perezhivanie made their social situation of development differently. Depending on how the contradiction was being emotionally experienced through the prism of each student’s perezhivanie, the same contradiction had different meanings, led to different reactions, and had differing impacts on their L2 identity.