When Deborah Peterson reluctantly accepted the principalship of Roosevelt High School in Portland, Oregon, a high-poverty school no other qualified applicants would touch that her supervisor assigned to her, books for new principals were no help. The books suggested actions like crafting a school vision and developing professional learning communities. Roosevelt had dismal achievement scores and had no teaching plan, curriculum map, school calendar, parent participation, or even positive image in Portland when she arrived. Peterson started by building relationships and hope. She ended up staying as the head of Roosevelt and leading changes that turned the school around. She describes how unexpected sources of support for her spirit made a difference as she put in place Positive Behavior Support, worked to make community partners true sources of help, and challenged dysfunctional patterns at Roosevelt. What pulled her back from the brink of quitting, she writes, are what every urban principal needs: human gestures that showed her coworkers cared about and believed in her. (Contains 1 endnote.)