After more than 30 years of the single life – 30 years of adventure and independence – I have partnered with a beautiful man to travel through life.

We planned our first trip together after only three weeks of dating and three months later when we actually left 1. we were still dating and 2. we travelled so incredibly well together. It quickly became clear there would be many more adventures ahead.

But this one particularly freaked me out.

My dad called up one day to announce he and my mother were fulfilling a lifelong dream and travelling to Belize. They want me to come. Always open to adventures in a new country, my partner was brought into the mix and suddenly I was heading on a double date with my parents that would last 10 days.

Now for normal people this may not seem like a big deal but as the trip got closer this commitment-phobe got more and more scared. I have driven through tornadoes and I have swam with sharks but I could not handle the thought of bringing my partner and my parents together in a house on a small island in the northeast of Central America. Nothing had scared me more in my entire life.

It all came to a head one night walking back to my apartment where I lost my marbles. I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, looked at my partner and started freaking out about how this was a bad idea and we should cancel the trip and how it was too soon in our relationship to do something so crazy and how terrible it would be if we all didn’t get along – I was hyperventilating.

Being the calm force in the hurricane that is my life, my partner stood silently and waited for me to finish my rant. He then calmly said, “You don’t get to be the one who freaks out about this, I do. I am the one who is vacationing with your parents. I am the one who has to impress. I am the one under pressure. And I think everything is going to be just fine. We all love you so we’ll just have to love each other and that’s all there is to it.” And then he proceeded to walk home.

Of course he was right. (I hate when that happens). Although in this case, I am happy he was.

We had a beautiful trip: Mayan ruins, delicious seafood, scuba diving and snorkelling the infamous Blue Hole, a million card games, incredible memories.

It was a physical and psychological trip, and one of the adventures I am most thankful for having had to guts (and support) to do.