On this week’s ‘So You Think You’re an Adult?’, one man doesn’t understand why his girlfriend of four years wants to travel solo for six months. 

“One of the main things we’ve had in common has been our love for travelling and seeing new places,” he told Moncrieff. 

“Mow she’s told me she wants to go on a 6-month trip around the world without me. If she was heading off on a girls’ holiday maybe I’d understand but she plans to do this completely alone.” 

He said several of the countries on her list are countries he wants to see, and she hasn’t given a reason for why she wants to travel solo. 

“The fact that it’s such a long period away from one another is scaring me because can she really not stand me that much?” he said. 

“Is this her way of letting me know that she’s going to dump me soon and jet off?” 

Clinginess

Broadcaster Declan Buckley said it seems like there is some “clinginess” going on with the boyfriend. 

“Maybe she wants to be master of her own destiny and have her own choice of selection on excursions,” he said. 

Declan said the boyfriend should “take a large deep breath and see if you can exist and see if you can actually exist for six months alone”. 

“She’s going one way or another,” he said. “If you really care about your relationship and you believe it has the strength to survive, then it might.” 

Empowering

Writer Barbara Scully said she thinks the girlfriend is actually giving herself six months of alone time before she commits to larger life decisions. 

“It could be that she’s thinking that they’re going to settle down and this is her last chance to go out and do something before they settle down, possibly get a mortgage and probably have children,” she said. 

“For a woman to do something like this can be very empowering.” 

Couple saying goodbye to each other at the airport. Image: Yana Iskayeva / Alamy Stock Photo

She said the girlfriend might want to gain some “perspective” on her six months of travel. 

“Maybe she does want to make sure that that he is the right one. If she's away for six months, she might miss him terribly - he might get a phone call three months in.” 

Barbara said the boyfriend should realise this isn’t about him, and is about the couple gaining a new perspective of their relationship. 

“He can't stop her,” she said. “He has to let her go and he should give her his blessing and wish her well,” she said.