It can be hard to go back to school. September is a transitional period, and if you’re like me, it’s a rocky transition. But to remind myself to stay calm and collected when student life becomes too much, I think about the story of Icarus.

In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of Daedalus, who created the labyrinth  King Minos used to trap and kill his enemies. Daedalus got himself into trouble when he gave a ball of string to Minos’s daughter to help her find her way through the labyrinth.

She then gave it to Theseus, Minos’s enemy, which allowed his enemy to escape and defeat the Minotaur. As punishment, even though he didn’t really do anything wrong, Daedalus was locked in the labyrinth with his son, Icarus.

But Daedalus wasn’t going to give up his freedom, so he fashioned wings for his son and himself out of wax and feathers (which he got from who knows where) so they could fly into the sunset and live happily ever after. But that is easier said than done.

With his wings on his back, Daedalus set off and told his son to follow his path. He warned Icarus not to go too high because the sun would melt the wax, and also not to fly too low because the water would weigh down the feathers, and he’d drown.

Icarus was fine at first, but then he started flying higher and higher because he was excited. He forgot about his father’s warning. The wax binding the feathers on his wings started melting, and the feathers fell off one by one until he was flapping his bare arms.

As you can probably imagine, that didn’t end well. Icarus drowned in a sea later named in his memory.

When people say you can drown in your emotions, they mean it. For Icarus, he literally drowned because he was so confident in his skills, or lack thereof, that he wasn’t afraid of flying too high. The result: The Icarian Sea.

But it can also happen to students starting a new school year. I am a perfect example.

Emotions can make you reckless and overwhelmed. I had the same mindset about the start of school as Icarus did about flying—ambitious and assured. Now I am staying up past my bedtime because I thought I would have enough time for homework after an extended nap.

But I didn’t. I thought I would have time to take a refreshing nap and do school work, but now it is 1:30 a.m., and I am finishing up a paper. I flew too close to the sun. I believed I could do things my way and be fine, but I am and will be paying the price tomorrow morning for sleep loss.

The moral of the story: Don’t be like Icarus. Block out emotions that come with a new school year, whichever they may be, so they don’t overcome you. Don’t drown because you were overwhelmed, and don’t burn because you were overconfident. Ease back into the year and know your limits.

And also don’t be like me because I will probably be caught sleeping in class tomorrow.