ONE-FLAVOR LIVES

Selda opened her eyes with the first light of morning. She got out of bed, her feet touching the soft texture of the carpet, and she took a deep breath. “A new day,” she said to herself. But in truth, very little was actually new.

The first thing that greeted her in the kitchen was the cold countertop covered with its neatly arranged chaos. The moment Selda opened the cupboard, the same scene that had remained unchanged for years appeared before her: blocks of cheese. Ezine, tulum, kashar, cream cheese… It was as if each one was offering its first greeting of the day: “We’re here again.”

As Selda picked up the cheeses, instead of feeling peace, a strange heaviness rose within her. She sliced them carefully, placed them on plates, and arranged them at the center of the table. Everything was as it should be—orderly, neat, familiar… All too familiar.

When her family sat down and breakfast began, the conversations were just like the cheeses—unchanged. The children complained about the same things, her husband started the day with the same questions. As Selda listened, she felt like a stranger for a moment—like an actress forced to perform the same scene every single day.

Evening arrived. The kitchen, the same cupboard door, the same cheeses, the same silence at the table. Selda leaned against the counter and wondered, “Is this really all life is? Does it have to be this monotonous?” No answer came. Only fatigue. And then darkness.

Suddenly a sound rose—first from far away, then closer, like an approaching scream: the alarm. Selda jolted upright, breathless, her heart racing. For a moment she felt trapped between dream and reality. “So it was all a nightmare…” she whispered.

She hurried to the kitchen. When she opened the cupboard, she was first surprised and then smiled at the burst of colors in front of her. This time, the cupboard didn’t smell only of cheese; the freshness of tomatoes, the coolness of cucumbers, the shine of olives, the cheerfulness of jams were all there. She even bent down to open the drawer, and the scent of the sausage package seemed to greet her too.

As she set the table, the excitement inside her grew. As the plates filled the table, the house seemed to come alive; colors spilled into the rooms, joy bounced off the walls. When her family came to the table, breakfast was no longer just a routine; it felt like shared happiness, the harmony of diversity, the joy of being together. Her children’s eyes sparkled, and her husband smiled in pleasant surprise.

As Selda sat down, a thought passed quietly through her mind: “How beautiful diversity is…” But then her thoughts shifted: Why do we fear this beauty when it comes to people? Why do we assume everyone is like us, as if the whole table is made only of cheese?

Life wasn’t like that. Discovering new cultures while traveling was exciting. Seeing a character different from the usual in a TV series sparked curiosity. New flavors, new stories, new paths helped a person grow. But when it came to people, differences in ideas felt like threats, the diversity of emotions seemed like chaos, and varied lifestyles created uneasiness.

Selda looked at the breakfast table. The diversity on the table was dazzling; each flavor existed in harmony with the others. In that moment, she understood: relationships were exactly like that. Every person was like a flavor—some intense, some mild, some sour, some sweet… but together, they completed the table.

The monotonous breakfast in her dream was perhaps the uniformity people sought in relationships—safe but soulless. Yet true richness lay in placing differences side by side, hearing every voice, and seeing every color. Selda took a deep breath and looked at the table, at her family, at life. The words inside her were now much clearer: “People complement one another not because they are the same, but because they are different.”

And that day Selda understood: diversity was not only the healing of tables, but the greatest remedy for relationships, journeys, and life itself.

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Experiential Design Teaching is a knowledge community that produces strategies for designing our future based on past experiences.

The "Who is Who", "Mastery in Relationships" and "Success Psychology" Seminar Programs offer the needed methods for those who want to be happy and successful in life by solving their problems and achieving their goals.

"There is only one thing in life that can never be discovered; The better one..."

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Yahya Hamurcu