Spring weather not only brings out the usual batch of miniskirts, flip-flops and oversized sunglasses, but suddenly it seems as though happy couples are taking over the campus.

Everywhere you go, gossip on the latest couples and who likes whom surrounds you. It seems as though everyone who isn’t in a relationship thinks and dreams about being in one.

Listening to almost any conversation around campus, it is easy to realize that what most college students want is lasting love. It is as though we are on the lookout for anyone who has potential to be “the one” everywhere we go.

Women in particular trick themselves into believing that every man they are with has the potential to be “the one.” Why is there this obsession with marriage and love?

Shouldn’t there be a time for fun and a time for love. As college students, we should be enjoying being a “single.” High school, college and entry into the “real world” are the time to find yourself and enjoy your freedom. Marriage, if it lasts, takes up a vast stretch of one’s life. So, why is there this continual rush to the altar?

Why are so many of us on the lookout for our future spouses when we should be enjoying some of the best times of our life as a single?

It seems as though young people believe they need a significant other to be complete or whole. What happened to college being one of the only times when we are encouraged to meet new diverse people, spend time getting to know ourselves and find who we are?

Suddenly everyone is rushing for the life’s next big step: marriage.

It seems to me that there is plenty of time to build meaningful romantic relationships.

This short period of our lives should be spent being independent and unbound by the rules that love and commitment require.

There are many years ahead of us that are meant for discovering the ins and outs of relationships, but this part of our lives should be considered a vacation from the heartbreak and stress that comes with romantic love.