Maggie Meegan | Reporter
There is nothing as special as finding the love of your life in college. I should know, as I fall into the category of college girls who are engaged before graduation.
There is a trend that during the spring semester, couples on college campuses fall in love and get engaged. We call this trend “ring by spring,” where couples get engaged quickly and rush to prepare a wedding by the time they graduate or even sooner.
The thing is, once you get over the high of the excitement of getting engaged, it is a hard new reality you wake up to. Do not get me wrong, I really do love my fiance, and I would never trade our life together for anything else, but there is a lot more pressure and stress on me than I expected.
First, there is the anxiety of making sure you have found the right person. I feel a lot of couples who fall into this ring by spring category have lost the Christian identity of what it means to date for marriage. That includes considering what a Christian marriage symbolizes and shows to the world. I picked my fiance after years of dating, praying and seeing how he is a man of God through and through.
I did not really have anyone in my life who had planned a wedding while finishing college to make me aware of how consuming it is.
The wedding market is extremely expensive, and I am lucky to have parents and in-laws who are helping us out, but I end up staying up late after doing my forever-long homework assignment to research the most cost-effective decorations, travel, food, flowers and entertainment.
Students have enough demanding things thrown at them. You have to attend class, pay for college, housing, food and any expenses extracurricular activities require. It is almost like a competition to see how much you can take on before you crack. Planning a wedding and a life for you and someone else is not a game or a fun task you get to do on the side.
I find myself stressed, not present and not sleeping due to the constant worry about how to schedule my day and how I will get everything done that is being asked of me. This is very real and not merely a complaint — ask anyone you know trying to plan a wedding and graduate at the same time.
No one ever told me how tiring this season of life would be. That I would have no time to myself and I would spend hours on the computer rather than with my friends or family.
For all the young lovebirds out there, do not rush to get engaged. Just look around you and enjoy this season of life that you are already experiencing together.
To those who have felt the pressure of the ring by spring culture, do not let it define you or your life. It is perfectly OK to not be engaged at this age or to not even know who you will marry. This culture is not some bright, fun, shiny thing you should just easily make up your mind and enter. This is a season of life you should evaluate when considering how it will redefine what your life looks like in college.
