Hey guys! Hope your day is going well! Today, I want to talk about something in my life that has bothered me since the time I was really small. I also want to talk about how I\u2019ve learned to love it, to some degree, and just ways to work around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I haven\u2019t told you this already, I have congenital anosmia. It\u2019s a very rare sensory condition that leaves me unable to smell anything. And I mean ANYTHING. I\u2019ve been around skunks shooting their musk not far from my group and everyone else just started gagging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I haven\u2019t always been so open about my anosmia, mind you. When I was little, I thought it was normal and I\u2019d learn to smell like I learned to talk. As I got older though, I started to realize everyone else knew the smells around them, but when they\u2019d ask me if something smelled nice, I couldn\u2019t answer. And that\u2019s happened a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are plenty of awkward things that congenital anosmia causes in my day to day life. I can\u2019t tell when food is cooking, so I salivate less than normal. I can\u2019t wear perfume because I can\u2019t tell if it goes well with my body chemistry or not (yet people kept buying it for me in middle school!). When I was young, I thought I was being harassed by another girl who kept telling me I needed to shower- which, as it turned out, was because of how much I was sweating without realizing it throughout the day. She was still a bully, but my family finally gave me the truth about the issue: I often smell, because I can\u2019t tell when I\u2019m sweating if it evaporates quickly enough. I also just didn\u2019t know sweat smelled at the time, shockingly. The final embarrassing issue? I can\u2019t tell the smell of my discharge when I have a yeast infection\u2026 So I have to bring my underwear to my dad to have HIM smell it. Luckily I found other ways\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, my lack of sense of smell used to torture me to no end. I hated myself for being different like this. I wanted to have it fixed, but it\u2019s not something you can just cure. They don\u2019t even know what lead to me being born like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, there are upsides I\u2019ve learned. I\u2019ll never have to be uncomfortable if my partner is sweaty and smelly from hard work. I\u2019ll never have to hate the smell of diesel, or the scent of a gas leak (okay, that part\u2019s pretty bad actually). I\u2019ll never mind someone whose been musked by a skunk or even just musk flowing through our window. I\u2019ve basically learned that while there are great scents I\u2019ll never understand\u2026 There are also bad scents no one wants to express, that won\u2019t bother me in the least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Actually, I have a couple things on my bucket list related to my anosmia:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We all have a different perception of the world, but some things are still the same. While I can\u2019t see without glasses and can\u2019t smell for my life, I can touch, I can feel, and I can enjoy things just like you! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, I have a request for you to post in the comments: Tell me your favorite scent, and try to describe it for me who has never experienced smell. You\u2019ll find it\u2019s quite difficult- but I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll see some interesting things from your attempts! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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