The first day of school is a day of change, of altered sleep schedule from lazy summer days, of new notebooks and new teachers.

The first day of school freshman year of high school is an exciting, scary, dizzying mess of navigating maze-like hallways and new friendships and lunch tables.

The first day of school sophomore year is a reunion of friends speed-walking to their lunch table before any freshmen infest their territory.

The first day of school junior year should be almost-apathetic greetings with friends you’ve been hanging out with all summer as you all strut to the lunch table you’ve learned has the best wifi in the cafeteria

Except I changed schools for junior year. So my first day of school involved getting lost in the parking lot.

Fortunately though, I wasn’t left to fend for myself as a reincarnated freshman. My best friend from middle school attends my new school, and I made two friends from this school at a summer program some weeks ago. I was lead through the hallways sandwiched between experts who guided me through all the great wifi spots and which bathrooms to avoid during 3rd period and which teachers like what candies.

It’s a strange marriage of freshman-like, bright-eyed enthusiasm with junior-like, experienced poise.

School is still school. I know what to do.

I know the format of the heading to write on the left hand corner of any paper I turn in...except they write it on the right hand corner here.

I know how to read the seating chart in Statistic class to find my seat; I don’t know there’s a rough edge under my desk...not until I cross my legs and scrape my jeans.

I know what my friends here have told me they’ve experience, but I don’t know the nuances of this new school. It’s a new environment with new people and these loose threads on my jeans are a reminder to experience it for myself instead of relying on the comfort and security of the few friends I’ve already made.

The most profound advice I got about making friends was at a college panel. This phD student said 

“There is no point being shy on the first day of school. When you get on campus (of college) and know nobody, just go up and talk to anyone. Nobody is going to reject you, because chances are, nobody knows anyone and everyone is looking to make a friend”

This advice is so good for freshmen at a new school, yet there was a voice in my head saying “But you’re a junior. The other juniors have a set of friends already. They aren’t all looking to make friends”. And while that may be true, the perks of being at a big school of around 3,500 students, is that nobody knows everyone. It’s not hard to make new friends; it’s not easy to get bored or apathetic in a new school.

I thought long and hard last year about the consequences and implications of moving schools halfway through highschool, and I was not confident through summer if I liked the choice I’d made. But standing in new unfamiliar hallways having familiar feeling, I realize schools and schools. No matter how different or dramatic a change seems inside my head, I know what I’m doing. I know what to expect, and I have the perk of being able to enjoy new perspectives and people and experiences.