Upon a female student’s return from break after a big gift-giving holiday such as Christmas, she is often forced to go through the obligatory hand check to see if her finger has been recently adorned with an engagement ring.

If anyone would have approached me with a ring this Christmas, I think I would have run from the room screaming, but a good number of my friends and acquaintances have made the plunge, donned the diamond, and seem pleased about it.

Despite my personal aversion to commitment, I enjoy hearing their stories about how it happened or when the wedding will be and so on.

This is fortunate for me, because on this mating-ground campus where we live, the whole world seems to be involved in wedding talk.

Churches, rings and bridesmaids seem to be the center of discussion, but I guess that’s nothing new. These commitment conversations are just a continuation of what my family and friends were talking about over break.

It may be different in some circles, but when I get together with pals from home the high-priority topics that come up are who’s engaged and who’s pregnant. Once you get through the standard, “She is not!” or “She is?” or “Who did he finally get to marry him?” you can go on with the rest of the evening.

Even family members start to push you to the altar. If you’ve been dating anyone for any length of time, people assume that wedding bells are in your near future.

Bride catalogs are strategically placed throughout the house. Grandparents ask nonchalantly if you are seeing anyone, if he’s nice and most importantly, “Is he (insert your grandparent’s religion or beliefs here)?”

However, since my older sister has gotten engaged, with the wedding set for August, my parents have informed me that I can feel free to remain single for as long as possible.

I think there is more planning involved in this than we all originally thought. My mother even offered me $5,000 if I’d elope when I get married.

While the planning for the actual ceremony does take a lot of time and thought, I think the challenge of planning the engagement is a good way of making up for it. The stress of the asking situation is approximately equal to stress that the bride goes through while planning the wedding.

Granted, grooms are beginning to take a little more responsibility in preparing for the ceremony, but the main weight and worry still fall to the bride.

While the woman worries about happy crappy like the cake, the church, the flowers, the bridesmaids, the reception servers, the music, the invitations, and not tripping on her train, the groom picks up his tux and hopes that his pants aren’t too short and his shoes won’t hurt.

Meanwhile, engagement plans are getting bigger and better all the time. The biggest thing I’ve noticed after listening to a few tales of romantic proposals is that anymore it’s more than just a casual, “Hey, let’s you and me get married, babe.” Just a hint to all who plan to propose: If you want to get hitched, you have to get creative.

A phenomenal amount of planning goes into it. For example, before break you may have read a story about the guy who somehow convinced the students living in Larch residence hall to spell out his Big Question with the lights in their windows.

I was quite impressed. Not only did this guy have to depend on the cooperation of a bunch of college students to make the whole ordeal go smoothly, but if she had said no he would have had a whole building to break the news to. If it isn’t enough to get humiliated, it’s probably even worse to have eight floors of residents knowing about it.

In another engagement story I heard recently, the guy had the evening so structured that he had even made a tape of music to correspond with the route that their rented limo was driving.

He had it planned so down to the letter that he had even timed how long it took the stoplights to change from red to green, so the right song would be playing when they reached the spot where he asked her. Amazing? Yes! Did she accept? How could she say no?

So all people who are planning to pop the question, time to put on your creative thinking caps. Pull out all the stops when planning for that engagement, or the only tuxedo pants you’ll be worrying about are the ones you’ll wear to your friends’ weddings (and yes, the shoes will hurt).

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Joanne Roepke is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Aurora.