Do You Smell That?

1. Real butter is a treasure in a dorm room.
2. When selling chocolate bars for a fundraiser, it's a bad idea to to keep the box in your dorm.
3. Time After Time is an over-done song.
4. Smell the world.

Now I don't know if I am simply weird or if it is just an unspoken thing, but the first thing I notice about people is how they smell. Whenever I am with people, I can't help but notice what they smell like. For example, Megan smells like vanilla, sugar, and a mess of flowers. Melissa smells about the same, but it's less sweet and more rich. My mom, when I was younger, smelled like a bakery/deli because she worked at our local grocery store. When she had her days off, she smelled like clean clothes, her shampoo, and she smelled like her skin. Now, she just smells of home.

It's weird being at college. The first week weeks of living in the dorm were weird. I remember just feeling uncomfortable and I couldn't figure out why but then I figured it out: everything smelled differently. The bathroom didn't smell of my usual shampoo and my mom's hairspray - it now smelled like cleaning products and a mess of hair care supplies. My room smelled like it normally did, but it had a mix of something else. This was the most puzzling to me. I figured out why the bathroom smelled differently (the bathroom was cleaned every other day and was used by 30 girls), but my dorm room confused me the most. I knew my roommate had put out an air freshener, so I closed that for a while, figuring it would go back to the way I think it should smell - it didn't fix it. Finally, I figured it out: I wasn't the only one living in my room. I had my roommate and a ton more people were popping in and out of my dorm daily, so of course my room wouldn't just smell of me. After time, I didn't notice the difference as much.

When I was home for Christmas break, my mom came home one day after work. I had spent the whole day just lounging around and when I came downstairs, my mom looked at me and said, "I forgot you were here; I knew something smelled different." I never thought I had such a distinct smell until today, when I hugged my friend Shelby from behind. Although she didn't see my face, she somehow knew it was me. "I knew it was you," she said. "I could smell you." I laughed at it and made a comment about it later to Megan. "You have a very distinct smell," she said to me. I never thought I had a distinct smell. I never wear perfume and rarely do I put on lotion. The only thing that is consistent that I use that has a smell is my shampoo and conditioner. When I do put on something that has a smell to it, the smell tends to fade quite quickly. It just seems that there is something about me that smells a certain way.

Whenever I spend a few hours or the night in Megan's dorm, I come back smelling like a combination of her dorm (vanilla) and me. And this happens no matter where I go - I always come back smelling a bit different. Even when I hug someone, their smell lingers and it's almost like they are there all the time. It's crazy how much a smell can affect you - it can bring you back to a certain moment or bring back memories of someone. For me, the smell of a garden will forever remind me of my grandma. Beef jerky will remind me of car rides home with my mom from school.

Here's the point I'm trying to make: our sense of smell is here for a reason. Smell the world - I know it sounds funny, but we use our ears, eyes, and hands so often we sometimes forget about our noses. Our sense of smell can remind us of where we have been and who we've been with. Our skin is was reminds people of who we are - that we are real and sitting next to them or really giving them a hug. Sure, they can feel us, but when the smell of us (because each of us has a distinct smell) surrounds them, we really become real and our smell lingers and reminds them of who we are.

Stop and smell the flowers around you - you never know what they will remind you of.

Peace!

-Nicole