Love Has No Expiration Date - Guest Post

I read a quote from my fav aeroplane brother Miguel Flores once. It struck a chord, and I and I think, others, asked him to write more.

As you know, love has a big meaning for me. Been struggling with a few things today and this really struck me again as I re-read it.

Without further ado, I give you: Miguel Flores.


You are walking down a grocery isle and you pick up a new product on the shelf called “love.” It appears to be a special kind, with the subtext saying that it’s specifically for romantic love. Turning it over to read the label, you see that it has a wide variety of ingredients in it--things like patience, affection, selflessness, and other hard-to-swallow things.

You put it in your basket, thinking it might help you with your relationship problems. Little did you realize that you skipped over the disclaimer’s tag, saying that some side effects of “love” might include “pain, hurt, loneliness, suffering, and even hate” if used inappropriately.

And, ironically enough, you also miss the tag that points out that there is no expiration date, which doesn’t seem important at first glance. But, things that don’t have expirations turn out to be very important things; and the implications of such a thing can have dire consequences when unheeded.

Hey guys, listen carefully. (And don’t worry. I’ll be talking to both sides of the equation). You know that phrase? That popular one that cycles around with you and girls a lot. Guess what? The word in there, "love", doesn't have an expiration date. There's no "good for two weeks per girl" tag on it either. Isn't that crazy? "I love you" means "forever". So why do we treat it doesn’t?

If someone says "I love you" then the implication should instantly be "I will love you always," every single time. Instead we treat "I love you" like some trashy catch phrase; most people only mean to say "I like you a lot, but only for as long as I'm interested in you."

But love isn't something that fades away; true love stays, and true love stays forever. If you truly love someone, you will love them through any circumstance or consequence; you will love them whether they're a breath away or in another world entirely; you will love them whether they’re holding your hand or turning their back on you.

(Not an excuse for you to keep stalking ex-girlfriends, by the way. All I’m saying is that love doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to have a perfect relationship; sometimes love means letting go. Love is a two-way thing, and it often means caring for the other person even when they don’t care as much for you.)

So the next time you're about to tell that “special” girl that you "love" her, think about your words carefully. Do you really mean it, or is she just another toy to you? Another pair of jeans you'd like to try on? Is she just another pretty, dispensable face?

Because if you say "I love you" then it had better mean forever, or else your love doesn't matter, it isn't worth much, and it definitely shouldn't be given to her. If your “I love you” doesn’t mean forever, then your “I love you” isn’t good enough; maybe you don’t even really love her. So think about that. "I love you" isn't just a sign of affectionate emotion; it's a soulful, heart-filled promise.

Now that I’ve thoroughly beaten up the guys, it’s time to point out all your issues--lovingly of course. Unfortunately, the world’s a messed up place. If you’ve lived on it, and I’m assuming that everyone reading this has in fact lived on planet earth, then you’ll know this sad fact to be true.


This means that relationships aren’t, nor ever will be, perfect. Much as we’d like them to be, the truth of the matter is that we all have to work at relationships, and we’ve got to work hard (no matter what type of relationship it is--whether romantic or friendships or family or work, etc.).

Because this world is messed up, and relationships are messed up, this means that people are messed up too. So, by now you’re probably exasperated at me basically telling you everything you already know about this annoying thing called life. But, my point is this: even when everything sucks, one of the few things that holds things together is love.

Fortunately, love, as mentioned, doesn’t have an expiration date. Unfortunately, the world does. While love has been built to last forever, it has been plunged into a dark, dying world where nothing lasts forever. So, maybe this is the reason so many people say “I love you” as if they don’t know that it, or even want it to, lasts forever.

With that in mind, girls, please don’t lose hope. Set your expectations high anyway and don’t settle for a lowlife who will treat you less than you deserve. Guys, don’t play the game. Get your priorities straight and treat girls the way they should be treated.

Don’t let yourselves be hardened by people who hurt you. They’re broken, just like you. They’re blind, needy, maybe ignorant, maybe misguided; they simply don’t understand love. Just remember that no matter what goes wrong in your life, you should still love anyway. Even though it brings a lot of heartache, with the way that a broken world has redefined love, the very power of love itself heals.

Love doesn’t have an expiration date, and it doesn’t come in limited doses.