My unique disability

I was just an iddy biddy girl when I first knew something was different about me. It finally clicked on a day our family made a trip from Portland to Molalla.
Driving down the highway I saw a dead skunk in the road. I had always thought if something looked gross, you said it stunk. It's guts and gore made me go, "Oh man that stinks, uh that's terrible!" *grabs nose*
That's when my older brother, Nick, said, "It doesn't stink, it's just gross."
He and I got in a big argument over weather it stunk or not. I pointed out all it's nasty details, and said that it was the worst smell ever. I was near furious when mom agreed it didn't stink.
I can remember thinking, "What is wrong with these people? How can they stand the look of it?"
Nick said the way something looks does not make it smell. Then he mentioned smell being the taste in your nose. I thought he was crazy for saying that my nose could taste. Several arguments and a doctor appointment later, I found out I have no sense of smell.
Think of your younger years, waking up to the smell of you mother making pancakes. Coming home from school, you walk through the door greeted by the smell of cookies baking. When you finish mowing the lawn you look around at your accomplishment and sniff in the smell of victory. When you got your first new car, the excitement of it is even better when you were surrounded by the new car smell. Going to the ocean and breathing in the refreshing air. All these things, I have never experienced. This is because I was born with Anosmia(the inability to smell but still able to taste).

A good side to not being able to smell is that boundaries are broken with me working with people. Whe doing humanitarian work in other countries, some places tend to have such a bad odor, other workers have to leave because they cannot bare it. I can sit and talk with a person for an hour who has not showered in a month.



Often I am told to clean the toilet, pick up the dogs poop, and to clean the trailer bathroom when we go camping, all because I cannot smell. I am always told to do the dirty jobs because I cannot smell. Let me tell you, dirty jobs are still dirty when you cannot smell. Hygiene is the biggest problem for me. I never know when I need to take an extra shower because how hard I worked that day, brush my teeth because the lunch I ate, or if the perfume I am wearing is bad or not.


Many times when I tell some one I can't smell, they call me a liar. Once they believe me, they usually start listing all the things I cannot do. Um, HELLO! If some one told you they were blind, would you do that to them? Wtf?
One time in 7th grade, I was talking to the new girl. It got brought up that I couldn't smell, and she was shocked. She was holding a container of lotion. She shoved it to my face too quickly, and accidentally smashed it into my face, covering me with lotion and asked, "You mean you can't smell this?!"

The saddest part is that I do not qualify for any scholarships for students with disabilities. Trust me, I have tried =(