The school looks different every year: different posters, different classrooms, different faces. The one thing that does not change is that no one knows where they are going on the first day of school; even the tallest senior is reduced to a child desperately trying to decode their “golden schedule” in hopes of getting where they’re supposed to be. There is no way to appear dignified; there is no hope in trying, either.

Don’t make the mistake of believing that this first day will get easier as time goes on, because it most certainly won’t. Take it from someone who’s been through four of these: the entire first week of school will never be anything but an exercise in patience. How long can I survive without using the bathroom? How long can I last without checking my phone? How long until lunch? How long until I can get out of this meat locker and go home?

You’re going to sit through almost eight versions of the same PowerPoint, with each teacher conveying pleasantries and conducting quirky personality quizzes that will require you to embarrass yourself in front of your classmates.

You will receive syllabi and materials lists that you will misplace in the span of the school day and then you will have to furiously text your friends in hopes of unlocking the grand puzzle of getting your things together before the next class.

You’ll get to the cafeteria during lunch time and do that awkward shuffle around to find your friends or acquaintances or people who know your name and there will be at least a 15 percent chance that you won’t know a single soul in your lunch period. And at the end of the day, you will go home, throw yourself onto the bed and wish with all your heart to go back to simpler times where the first day of school included naptime.

It was a hard first day. It’s probably going to be a hard first week too.

But guess what? It is going to get easier.

You’ll figure out which teachers are going to be your friends and which teachers you’re going to have to tiptoe around. Maybe you lose your syllabus, but eventually you’ll learn to look for your teacher’s Remind101s and Google Classroom updates.

You’ll bond with the kids in your classes and pretty soon you’ll have a veritable clique to sit with at lunchtime. You’ll definitely always anticipate the chance to go home, but in time you’ll come to appreciate at least one facet of the halls whose chaos used to overwhelm you.