Jake, do we have an expiration date?
She looked directly into my eyes when she asked this. She wasn’t questioning because she wanted to know. She was telling me what I didn’t want to hear in the form of a question, like we were on freaking Jeopardy.
That was years ago.
I am not Alex Trebek. Not that I’d mind being him- or having his job. If I had my own show, I’d make good use of it. Because I invariably have an agenda. Also? I think he’s loaded. But I am better looking than he is. We’re not talking about that right now.
I’m regularly startled when some kind of dairy goes off in my fridge like a time bomb. I can’t buy a full gallon of milk because I can’t seem to finish it off without the stuff going sour. Which always feels so sudden. Thank goodness it comes in quarts and those awesome little eight ounce cardboard cartons that bring me all the way back to elementary school. I love those.
Expiring milk might be a surprise, but some things need expiration dates. I just have to know that particular endeavors aren’t forever. I’ve had a job or two that I looked forwarded to ending. Knowing that I was going to graduate from college gave me a drive that somehow had me working my tail off like I never had before. It was fantastic and a constant encouragement.
There’s just something about endings. We can’t wait for some and others catch us off-guard.
What’s your experience with expiration dates? Are they good? Bad? Ugly? Of course by ugly, I mean- did you have ugly cry-face when the last one happened?
TELL ME ABOUT IT. RIGHT NOW.
IT DEPENDS ON WHAT IS ENDING!
You yelled at me, so I had to yell back. Seriously though, it depends on what is ending. There have been certain jobs I was all too happy ended, while certain seasons of my life or opportunities that ended left me with ugly cry face.
Jason,
EXACTLY. They’re a a bag of mixed blessing, aren’t they?