Shavonne Pocock / Scroll Holly Morris, a junior from Woodland, Wash., standing by the legendary Thomas E. Ricks statue in the Hyrum Manwaring Student Center.

A ring before spring ...

The no. 1 effect of peer pressure is usually drugs or alcohol use. But in rexburg, it is marriage.

by Jill Camp CAM97009@BYUI.EDU Scroll Staff

Thinking that she may be coming, everyone quiets down. With bodies crowded behind couches and under tables, the lights are shut off. In the darkness, the only audible sounds are a radio playing in the back bedroom and the occasional giggle from an excited guest. The long-awaited moment has arrived. The door opens and the entering student is hit with a barrage of “Surprise!” and “Happy Birthday!”

Holly Morris, a BYU-Idaho junior from Woodland, Wash., turned 23 today.

With 13 people in one room, five conversations are going on at once. It is difficult to distinguish one from the other. The din seems to die down only when the birthday girl comes to an executive decision. The party will begin with everyone playing “In the Manner of the Adverb.” No one objects, and the game begins.

As Holly pretends to be a sarcastic aborigine, one of her guests is paying particular attention to her acting abilities. He has been observant the entire evening. When the person chosen to be “it” guesses the correct adverb, Holly returns to her seat under the watchful eye of her special friend. Holly doesn’t seem to notice the extra attention that was being paid her.

Compliments are granted, but barely acknowledged. Normally she would have thrived off attention from the opposite sex, but this was a guest that Holly doesn’t particularly want to associate with.

An acquaintance from home, this boy had not received a phone call inviting him to this event. His appearance shows his age. With thinning brown hair spotted with gray, this 34-year-old looked out of place playing with a bunch of 18- to 24-year-olds.

The age gap is not swaying him. He does not let up on Holly for one moment. Always sitting by her. Paying special attention to her. Being oblivious to anyone else in the room. Whenever it comes to receiving a pat on the back or a hand on the knee from him, Holly retreats.

The awkwardness of the situation begins to show on Holly’s face. Worry lines are more pronounced and her knee refuses to quit bouncing. Soon she begins to twirl her naturally curly hair. His attentiveness does not go unnoticed by her roommates. Attempting to alleviate the pressure on Holly, they suggest a new game, one where everyone has to switch seats. The birthday girl is soon flanked by her two Home Evening brothers who remain by her side throughout the evening. Soon the wrinkles disappear, her knee remains stationary and her laughter again filled the room.

Why would a bright, pretty girl go to such trouble to avoid contact with a member of the opposite sex? Especially being 23, an age that isn’t the norm for an unmarried female student at BYU-Idaho.

Holly first came to Ricks College five years ago when she was still 18.

“I had heard stereotypes about getting married at this school, but I didn’t realize how true they were until I came here,” she said. She smiles as she recalls her first impression of courtship at college.

“My roommates took me to the third floor of the Manwaring Center and led me into a room with a sculpture of Thomas E. Ricks. They explained that if you rub his nose, you will get married before you graduate.”

“I didn’t give in and do it. Maybe that’s why I’m still single,” Holly said.

Many on campus who these legends seriously. Many girls “... come here with the goal of getting married. And if they don’t reach that goal, they leave feeling like they didn’t accomplish what they set out to do at college,” Holly said0. “That’s just backwards.”

Holly came to Ricks knowing what she wanted out of her college experience, but was not immune from the pressures of marriage. Her sophomore year at Ricks College she met a “sweet returned missionary,” she said, “who gave in to those pressures.”

Holly was looking for a ride to the temple one Friday when she went to her friend’s apartment. It was there that she was introduced to Bryce. Her first impression? “He was cute and really nice with a beautiful smile,” she said with a dreamy look. Needless to say, he didn’t have to twist her arm to get her to go with him to the Idaho Falls Temple the next day.

The next day they went on a walk after church. Strolling through the Thomas E. Ricks Gardens, he “... really opened up to me,” Holly said. They continued to see each other throughout that week and went to a fireside together the following Sunday. As he walked her home that evening, he made a statement that startled Holly. “He said, ‘I have something very important to tell you and I’ve been wanting to tell you this for a while now ... I love you and I want to be with you forever.’ My jaw dropped,” Holly said. That was where the conversation ended.

“Evidently we had different timetables. He said that he had been wanting to tell me that for a while. It had only been nine days and we weren’t even dating,” Holly said. “I didn’t know what to think.”

She knows now.