Yogurt Existentialism

• Bellicia Seminiano, Grade 9E
• Short Story
• 2016

Life is like Greek yogurt. You know, like those passionfruit ones.
The concept of it is so beautiful and tasty and simply scrumptious that you can’t wait to peel back its foil lid and dig into its contents. But then, all your dreams, hopes, and aspirations are crushed into a ball just like that foil lid because all you see is a thick, white substance with translucent liquid floating atop of it; there’s no passionfruit nor seeds anywhere to be found.
Alas, once you get a spoon and get right down to the bottom of its unappetising exterior, you pull everything from the bottom upwards and get to see all its gooey, yellow – and slightly artificial – passionfruit syrup as well as its seeds in all its glory. Despite it not looking appealing to the eye nor tongue, you take hold of that spoon and mix up that yogurt like there’s no tomorrow, and the white-turned-creamy-yellow snack becomes a convoluted cesspool comprised of seeds and syrup.
And that’s okay, because what once started out as a thick blob of cream went through a chaotic turmoil in order to become the delectable desert you hypothesised in your mind about thirty seconds ago.
Yes, I just tried to relate life to yogurt. But what’s important is the message! If you disregard the context and painfully unnecessary visual descriptions about yogurt, instead turning it into something substantial and somewhat relatable to your life, then the message is right in front of your eyes—and it’s a beautiful one, at that.
You see, in life, everything conceptually looks amazing. You watch a few YouTube videos about people’s lives and how they’re surviving through it; you see all these people and their sickening successes. But just like that tin foil lid, your heart crumples as you’re pulverised by the road-roller that is reality: the plain, pasty whiteness of the unappealing Greek yogurt. There’s none of those high-school romances you see in the movies; there’s no such thing as getting your dream job! Who would’ve thought?
But you carry on.
Even if your self-esteem drops right down to the bottom of the yogurt container, you’re able to pull everything bad that’s ever happened to you back up to the surface, and you begin to whirl around in the concoction of reality, sometimes spilling outside of the container and getting too tired to move. Faster and faster you go, spinning and whizzing through the yogurt that is your life, and everything becomes a blur. The passion fruit syrup, its black seeds, and the thick yogurt all blend together to finally become the aesthetic, delectable snack you had earlier imagined when you’d grabbed it out of the fridge.
So, guys, gals, and non-binary pals, if your life isn’t feeling up to scratch, just remember that when all that syrup, seed, and yogurt-mixing blows over, your life will turn out to be something better than plain Greek yogurt.