Church my Freshman year

At one point in my life, I was pretty happy as a TBM -- My freshman year at BYU. I'm not exactly sure why that year was better than my other 2.5 years there. Maybe it was the novelty of being away from home. Maybe it was that my GEs were easier for me than my major classes.
I really think it was my Freshman ward though. It was a great group of people. There were a few couples within the ward, but most of us were just a large group of friends having fun and enjoying college.

One thing that was special to me that year was taking the Sacrament.
Sacrament meetings were quiet, since it was a singles ward. There weren't children running around, or crying, causing distractions. This gave me an opportunity to think more about what the Sacrament was, as well as the Atonement.
It was also the first time I noticed people not taking the Sacrament, and it made me sad to see some of my friends not participating in this part of the meeting. This also led to further contemplation of that act.

I thought about this today, because there is an interesting thread at New Order Mormons that discusses forcing children to be reverent, and it made me start thinking about the effects of reverence in meetings. I remembered how much more I enjoyed Sacrament meetings that year because of the reverence. But I also missed the vitality and children in a "family ward."
I find it strange that I didn't get the same feelings out of Sacrament meeting my other years at BYU. Maybe I was tired of the bubble by then, or maybe church seemed too much like a meat market at that point. I could never get into the RM/Off Campus wards like I was into my safe Freshman ward.

I liked my Freshman ward because there was very little pressure. We were off at school, away from home for the first time. Most of the people in the ward were at the same point in life. Even though we had classes to study for, life was carefree. We went out a lot as friends, and there was no pressure to be in a relationship or get married. The guys were headed off towards their missions, which was unthreatening to those of us that knew we weren't ready for marriage.
After that year, I was in off-campus wards, around RMs. I felt the pressure of dating for marriage, and I knew it wasn't something I was ready for. But by the time I graduated, I felt like something was wrong with me: I was still single; I didn't have a boyfriend my entire time at college; I hadn't even been kissed for over 3 years.

I'm not completely sure what my point is, in all of this. Its an experience I want to share. I guess what it boils down to, is that the LDS church pressures to conform. Whether its the primary children being forced into "reverence" or its the young single adults being forced to confirm to marriage.

And for a brief one year period, there was less pressure to conform. We were naturally reverent and happily single.