I'm 38 and was thrilled to finally have a boyfriend to bring on a family vacation. I still decided to go without him.

Even though I finally had a boyfriend to bring on a family vacation, I still decided to go alone.

Corinne Lestch At 38, I was so excited to finally have a boyfriend to bring to my family vacation .

Although I loved the idea of bringing him along, I decided to go alone.

Not taking him allowed me to focus on my loved ones, and ultimately strengthened our relationship.

Last year, when my dad told me that he and my aunt were planning our first extended family vacation in decades, my stomach sank.

Not because I didn't want to see my relatives, but because I knew I'd be the only single person on the trip.

As he listed everyone who'd be staying at the rental house in the Outer Banks , all I heard was one couple after the next: my aunt and uncle, my brother and his girlfriend, my cousin and her husband and their toddler, and my other cousin with his wife and their two dogs.

"You wouldn't mind sleeping on a bunk bed, would you, Corinne?" My dad asked me, the woman in her 30s who has been perennially unpartnered her whole life.

My relationship status has always been an unspoken but unremarkable fact in my family.

Thankfully, no one ever pressured me to find a spouse or nagged me about when I'd give them grandchildren.

So consider me dumbfounded when — just as I was getting used to the idea of sleeping on a top twin bunk and sticking out like a single, sore thumb — I met someone named Joe on an app just a few months before our family vacation in July.

After years of going solo, the idea of bringing a plus-one was hard to resist Soon after we started dating, I started fantasizing about taking Joe on my family's coming trip.

Corinne Lestch As the weeks passed and I realized this wasn't just another fleeting fling or an unsatisfying situationship, I slowly let my guard down.

Joe is smart, supportive, and refreshingly straightforward.