Expiration Dates

Expiration dates aren’t only for food, they hold true for relationships too. Whether romantic, career or friendship, they all have an expiration date. It could be in a few months, years, or a date so far into the future that you never get close enough to realize it. We’ve all been there.. the relationship that went on longer that it should have...staying at a job that you start to despise, or the relationship you are in just because you afraid of the 6 letter word.. SINGLE! Is it really better to be in a “relationship” that is past its expiration date? If you are no longer happy is it really worth it to invest time and energy? Some may argue that its just a rough patch, but when the rough patch has lasted 3 months and nothings changed, its time to get out. There is the “grace period”, you know when you drink milk that is 3 days expired. You are taking your chances by doing it, you can be fine or you can get sick, but its a risk you are willing to take. But as you get further from the initial sign of the expiration date are you willing to take the same risks? Would you drink milk 2 months after its expiration date? Probably not. So why should a relationship be any different?

You many not agree with the expiration date and try to hold on trying to make it work, but that is an indication that the relationship has expired (or approaching the expiration date). I’m not saying that relationships are effortless, but if you are constantly unhappy and stressed in a relationship is it really work being in? If we all serve a purpose/function in each others lives isn’t the expiration date telling us that the purpose has been fulfilled and you need to move on?

Expiration dates don’t have to mean that its over for good, it could mean that that there is a new purpose or function that the job or person needs to fulfill. Think about the friends that have grown with you over the years, many of them may have come close to their expiration dates, but the relationship is reinvented time and time again and a new function/purpose is there to be fulfilled. We grow as people and relationships need to do the same.

Some expiration dates are created while others we have to create our own but knowing that there is an existence of an expiration date makes you realize that not everything is meant to last forever.