High expectations - low realities

With all the nerves and anticipation of any teacher at the start of a new year, I stepped into my school on the first day of staff development, just 4 short days before the students arrived. That first hour was filled with motivational speak from the brand new principal of the middle school I was just hired at. She was from another Title 1 school in another state. Full of ideas and energy, she excited me and appealed to the idealism that is so often found in new teachers. Later that day I found that she was in fact the 4th principal this school has had in the last 6 years. The staff was more than half new as well, including 2 of the 3 assistant principals. The school was not without the typical problems facing most urban schools with the exception that it was rebuilt in the early 2000's so it was nice. After hours of hearing about the plans to rebuild the students morale, raise test scores, and promote general well being among the staff, finally the time came for me to get my classroom. The classroom serves as sanctuary for many teachers. We don't control the standards, the curriculum, or the students we get but we do control how the inside of our classroom looks like. I was stoked. I got my key, made my way up the stairs, and walked down the hall to my classroom.
As soon as I keyed open the lock and walked in my heart sank. It was a science classroom. It had no wall space as the walls were covered almost entirely with cabinets. There was less than half a white board, the other half being covered with grid lines. There were no desks just heavy tables, plugged up sinks, and dirty counters. To ice the cake there was also a tremendous amount of stuff leftover from the last teacher. Apparently she had never moved out and everything from old pencils to broken beakers were strewn about. I left feeling deflated and broken. I didn't expect a glorious place but I did expect more than that. I knew I had two choices I could either wallow in self pity, which would help no one, or I get over it and work with what I had. I chose the latter. So after nearly 15 hours of intense cleaning, alot of creative spacing, and half a roll of butcher paper I had a classroom. It wasn't ideal but it would do. Now all I had to do was wait for the kids.