The September Lock-In: When Did September Become the New January?

By Anya Saluja

It’s officially fall, which means it is time to get your life together.

Or at least, that is what TikTok tells us.

Something about September feels like January. Maybe it is the colder weather coming in, or just the fact that a new academic year feels like a new year.

A new calendar. A new journal. New notebooks and pens that you probably didn’t need but feel necessary.

“Hey Mum, could you buy me this for uni?” just something new for a new uni year. It is almost like January has come early.
And maybe that is why the September Lock-In has become a thing.

By September, you become the kind of person who wakes up at 6am, goes to the gym, makes a healthy meal, attends every lecture, reads ahead, applies for placements and has £400 in savings.

By October, you’re eating a Tesco meal deal at 11pm and wondering whether skipping one lecture is worth a few more hours of sleep.

University in itself can be very hectic. As students, we are expected to be the academic, the gym rat, the career-focused student, the financially responsible adult, the chef and the person who somehow remembers to check their bank account.

“I’m two days into college, and I’m three lectures behind. There’s this guy, let’s name him Colin…” a lyric that will actually be a reality when classes start.

Seems like you have your whole life figured out before your first lecture.

At Queen’s, there is always something else you could be doing. A society to join, a lecture to attend, a placement to apply for, a night out to go to. There is so much to do that it can feel as though you should be doing all of it. With over 200 societies to choose from, it is no wonder it can feel a little overwhelming.

Social media makes that seem possible.

It shows us the perfectly organised desk, the library session, the gym, the healthy meal, the society event and the night out… sometimes all in the same day. We start believing that someone else’s best day is what a normal day should look like.

And suddenly, even a fresh start comes with pressure.

We can start something in October. Or November. We can change our routine when the one we made in September stops working. We can start again when we feel behind. It’s not a race.

There is also something strange about trying to “lock in” while trying to actually experience university.

At some point, when do we get to be university students?

When else do we get to go out, make mistakes, meet people we would never have spoken to, spend three hours talking about nothing, or simply have an unproductive day?

The September Lock-In isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There is nothing wrong with wanting a fresh start, making plans or having an over the top routine.

You can still have the new notebooks, the new pens, the feeling of opening a new journal and imagining everything the year could become.

September can still be our January.

But perhaps a fresh start doesn’t need to become another competition. We don’t need to live five different lives in one day.
One balanced life is more than enough to lock in in September.