This article is part of a longitudinal study on academic sense of belonging (SB) in engineering, which uses narrative analysis to examine development of meaning-making systems (MMS). Featuring narratives of three students of color, findings show that over time, some students experienced subject-object shifts in their perceptions of SB, as well as changing salience of SB across sub-contexts of their academic experience. Access to anchor points helped instill a foundational SB while pivot points helped shift students' MMS for SB, with intersectionality influencing access to anchor and pivot points. With shifting MMS, students ultimately engaged in varied approaches to navigating SB. Implications include new theoretical conceptualizations of SB in research as well as new approaches for educators to support the development of students' MMS for SB.