Now you’ve been together for 6 months and your feeling like you want to get a taste of what it might be like to live together, without living together. The closest you’ll ever get to living together before marriage is taking a vacation together. Bring friends and remember boys in one room, girls in the other.

I highly recommend going with other people for the following reasons:

• Less temptation to make unplanned children.
• What if you can’t stand them for more than five hours? Now you are stuck with them.
• Someone else is there to take lovey dovey pictures of you to post on Instagram.

Going on vacations can be like The Bachelor in real life. You get a few days of doing whatever you want and not face life’s terrible realities like financial difficulties, stress, sickness and cleaning. Going on vacations together can be good and bad. If you make memories with someone then end up breaking up, you can’t go back to that place without thinking about them and the last time you were there, so that is kind of crappy. If you end up marrying the person then you remember the time you lost $500 in Vegas or got stung by the stingray while surfing in California. Or if you choose to vacation in Arizona for some odd reason, you remember the sunburn you got on the eighteenth hole. Just remember this is a big step in the relationship so take it seriously.

We are almost to the end of our dating discussion. I’m not sure who’s more relieved, you or me? Unfortunately, as of yet, I have not been able to use my own advice but I am learning as we go along. So at this point people are probably asking you questions you don’t know how to answer. Such as, “Are you thinking you’re going to marry him or her?” Its okay, these are normal questions for people to ask who have nothing currently going on in their lives. Just avoid the answers until you’re ready. Here is how I know I am not ready for marriage:

• I have yet to go on a date.
• I have yet to meet someone I think will ask me on a date.
• I have yet to meet someone I have decided is worth going against social norms to ask him or her, to ask me, to go on a date.

Here is the usual breakdown. Once you realize you’re dating, then people ask when you’ll be official. Once you’re off the market, you’re pressured to tell others if you think this person is worth marrying. Than its when are you getting engaged and oh, you are married, when do we expect children in the picture? This pure barrage of questions is why Paul recommends staying single in the Bible. (Sound Biblical Advice) Who has the time to think about all that? I’m busy Netflixing. I can’t deal with that garbage.

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