The first week at a new school, nobody knows your reputation. That’s a blank page, not a threat.

Reputations stick mostly because everyone around you keeps confirming them. A room with no history in it removes that machinery, and whoever walks in is whichever version you decide on that week. It feels exposing, because the usual scaffolding is missing. The same absence is what lets you start something different without having to announce a change.

If you land somewhere new, choose one thing about how you want to come across and simply do it from day one. No explanation required. Nobody there has an older version to hold it against.