Last month, I accomplished a major milestone in my first real relationship with my boyfriend, John.

This August, on his 30th birthday, we’ll be celebrating one year of dating. So naturally, he asked me to go on his family trip to Orlando, Florida to visit the Universal Orlando theme park, because we love doing adventurous things together and making memories.

It was our first big trip together, and one that was long-awaited and filled with anticipation, nerves, and excitement. We move quite slowly in our relationship (we’ve only had four kisses so far!) because it is both of our firsts, so when he asked me if I wanted to share the room with two beds, I first thought that I would just keep to the couch.

But then I considered the why behind the ask. Perhaps John wanted to feel out how it would be to spend extra time together through close-knit, shared space. And perhaps he wanted to feel a closeness to me we hadn’t felt before – sleeping through the night together (albeit in our own individual beds), listening to the sound of your love’s breathing, gives you a newfound appreciation for the gift of life and the fact that we get to share ours together.

As two devout young Catholics, John and I had to make the conscious decision to remain chaste, not kissing, hugging, or cuddling before we got into bed and sleeping with the door open for accountability. We’ve never cuddled before or laid in the same bed together, and I know, at least for me, I will never do that until we’re one day married (God willing). Cuddling, although relatively harmless in the right circumstance, leads to more intimate acts that should be for more serious stages of our relationship. The temptation that comes with being that close breeds further temptation, and although I feel attracted to John, I remain committed to waiting to cross those lines until I’m married.

I also had to practice something else that I thought would be reserved for marriage – making a sacrifice for the good of the other. Specifically, when John mentioned wanting to head to Super Nintendo World at lunch time, I gave up the whole reason I wanted to go to Epic Universe: to meet Toothless and Hiccup in How To Train Your Dragon: Isle of Berk. We spent the majority of our time in Super Nintendo World because John loves Mario, and it actually ended up being one of the highlights of my trip, too. The cute photo opp will always be there for us to go back to, but it was John’s trip, so I had to make some hard yet worthy choices.

Overall, my first trip with my first boyfriend taught me a lot, and gave me the opportunity for the grace to be chaste and put my boyfriend first, both good lessons for my future as a young Catholic spouse. Please keep John and I in your prayers, and know of my prayers for you, fervently and always.