‘I didn’t want to go through all of this and be at the same place I was when I came to the mansion’: Golden Bachelorette Joan Vassos shares what she wants the most from this season

We are just days away from the highly-anticipated premiere of The Golden Bachelorette — the long-awaited spin-off series of The Golden Bachelor — and leading lady Joan Vassos sat down with PEOPLE to share something that no Bachelorette has ever said before: “I said all along I didn’t need to leave engaged.”

Huh? Isn’t the whole point of the Bachelor franchise to get engaged come finale night?

Stunning fans of the Bachelor franchise with this statement, Joan quickly clarified what she meant, explaining that while she does not need to finish her Golden Bachelorette journey with a ring on her finger, she still wants to find love during her stint on the show:

“My goal was to leave in a committed relationship. I wanted to have somebody I saw a future with and that we wanted to see how it works in the real world outside of the Bachelor bubble. I didn’t want to go through all of this and be at the same place I was when I came to the mansion.”

Believe it or not, this hesitancy to get engaged involves just one factor: distance.

After stating that she would never leave her family earlier this year, fans of the Bachelor franchise became unsure as to whether or not Joan will be able to find her forever person at the end of The Golden Bachelorette.

After all, how many of the suitors from her season happen to live in her area? Well, it looks like only one man is actually from Maryland…

Nevertheless, Joan confirmed in the same interview with PEOPLE that she would be willing to make a long-distance situation work, however, an actual engagement may put a wrench in her plans:

“My thought was that, depending on your working status, you could go and spend two weeks at their house and two weeks at your house, or have another location where you would all gather and maybe each other’s families would come. You figure it out for a while until you figure out a permanent arrangement, and that could be, feasibly, years.”

The unwillingness to leave her family is why Joan is open to “leaving in a committed relationship” rather than getting engaged, but we will just have to wait and see what happens. With Pablo Gonzalez-Juana hailing from Cambridge, Maryland, perhaps the pair hits it off and the crisis is averted after all…

To see Joan’s love story from start to finish — and to see whether or not she ends up with fellow Maryland resident Pablo — catch the premiere of The Golden Bachelorette Wednesday, Sept. 18, at 8pm ET/PT on ABC, with next-day streaming via Hulu or Disney Plus.

With a stellar group of suitors — including Kelsey Anderson’s oh-so attractive father, Mark Anderson — it is certain to be a smash hit!