The Nose Knows

When Doug and I first got married, he told me that if we all had superpowers, mine would be my nose.  Some people may have found that statement offensive, but I didn't. He wasn't telling me that because I had a big nose.  It was because I had a very strong sense of smell and knew that I could distinguish smells better than anyone I had ever met.

My strong sense of smell has really come in handy over the years.  There has never been a time in our home that a gas burner was left on that I didn't smell it right away.  I could also sniff out any mold or mildew, so I never had to worry about having hidden black mold in my home.  My sense of smell also came in handy when I was teaching.  After a long day at school, I could come home, light a Yankee Candle and instantly "smell" away my problems with the relaxing scents.

Having a highly sensitive nose has caused issues, however.  I have never been able to wear perfume as the scents were always way too strong for me.  Anything with musk in it, instantly gave me a migraine.  I also found vanilla scents to be extremely noxious as well.  Gasoline has always been a headache trigger for me as well.  If anyone spilled a little bit of gas on their hands or shoes when filling up, I would have to travel with the windows down until our next stop.

The worst offense to my nose, however, has always been body odor.  I can smell someone who needs to take a shower or wash their clothes from a mile away.  Unfortunately, that has gotten worse since we moved to Florida as it is a lot hotter down here.  I wish I knew a nice way to tell individuals that they smell, but I have never been able to figure that out. For now, I guess I will just focus on the benefits of my "super" nose and pray that someone else has the superpower of knowing how to give other people bad news.