smell is a fascinatingly complex sense

because it can protect you from things in ways like

keeping you away from that rotten yogurt

or not letting you touch that dead seal

or reminding you of how much that specific someone hurt you

but it also reminds you of the good things you’ve experienced

your first time at the movies

the easter that you got a ton of candy and threw it all up

that time you snuck out on the fourth of july

ocean breeze that stayed in your hair long after you left the coast

when you fell asleep in the back of the school bus and he got stuck in my sweater

so smell is so much more than the faculty or power of perceiving odors or scents by means of the organs in the nose

it encompases who you are and what you’ve done with your life

the journeys you’ve had and what you remember most from them