Growing up, I was always confused when my cousins would wake up early in the morning and talk about the smell of bacon flowing throughout my grandparent's house. I couldn't smell anything. From what I can recall, I have never been able to smell. When passing a skunk on the road I would always be utterly confused as to why everyone freaked out so much.

I would tell my family that I couldn't smell anything, but they didn't believe me for years.

In high school, I finally brought it to my doctor's attention that I have no sense of smell. Her immediate reaction was "oh, my daughter can't smell either" as if it was no big deal. I always thought that I was the only one.

I never brought it up, because I didn't want people to think that I was crazy.

While there are perks to missing out on the bad smells in life, not being able to smell makes life difficult at times. I have to strictly rely on expiration dates for food because I cannot tell if it is spoiled or not without eating it. I also have to make sure I take my trash out very regularly so that my room doesn't smell weird.

I miss out on smelling food and flowers. I miss out a lot.

Going into Bath and Body Works is always really awkward for me. Whenever the employees ask if I want to smell their new lotion I always lie and say that it smells good or I awkwardly tell them I can't smell and receive a weird reaction from them. If I ever want a new lotion from there, I rely on my sister and my mom to pick out something that I would probably like.

While at times it sucks that I can't smell, I guess I can't really miss something I never had.