August slipped away between results, and a summer crime.
By Anya Saluja
What do you write about a month that has nothing to say?
The summer dream has reached its end credits. Except, unlike a film, there’s no skipping to the end. We have to sit through August, results day, goodbyes and all. This month, however, seems particularly strange for students who waited for their
A-level results. On 13 August, the wait finally came to an end. Two years of your life came down to a few letters on your screen.
A*, A, B, C. Simple letters that apparently have a say in what university we get into.
Northern Ireland saw 30.7% of A-level grades awarded an A* or A, up from 30.3% last
year. For some, those letters meant packing their bags for the university they’d been dreaming about. For others, they meant a change of plans or a route that they hadn’t considered before. Either way, the future had officially stopped being a plan and became something that was just around the corner. This year also saw a record number of students accepted into university across the UK, with more students getting into higher tariff universities. And perhaps that is August’s purpose.
It gives you an answer without giving you somewhere to go. You get your results. You tell your family. You celebrate. You cry. You call your friends. And then you look at the calendar. Still August, time’s forgotten child. That is summer’s crime, giving us a month that is not quite summer and not quite autumn yet, just in between lots of maybes and planning. You never know what to do with this month. And so you just exist in the space between, whether you’re an incoming first year or a returning student. This month doesn’t come with instructions. We don’t know exactly what is going to happen when we enter university. We just know that we’re going, that we won’t see some friends for a while, and that no one will give you a tutorial on how to deal with the time before going to university.
August is, in a way, just a month for us to figure it out.
It is a feeling you never quite get used to. You experience that transition differently each time, and perhaps that is what summer gives us towards the end, a reflection of sorts, and maybe a welcome to the new season. The last week of summer always feels longer than it is. You can feel it in the weather. Summer’s gone, autumn is here, and university starts for everyone.
June brings the anticipation. July gets the memories. September gets the fresh start. August gets the transition. It gives us time to realise that one chapter has ended before we’re thrown into the next. And perhaps that’s why it feels so strange. We’re just standing somewhere in between, holding our results, packing our bags and wondering what happens next. The credits are rolling, until the next film starts.
Reference:
BBC News, A-level, T-level and vocational results: What you need to know, 13 August
2026. – https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyqpqxv04go
