Tuesday 23 October 2012

TAKE A SNIFF DOWN MEMORY LANE


It’s funny how we take some things for granted. Like the 5 senses that we were so freely given by the Lord when he created us. Sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing. These senses are vital as they help us interact with our environment and other people but above all, they are important as they feed our memory and conscious. Ideally for one to remember something they need to read it or hear it as it is very emphasized in the 844 cramming regime and we also tend to remember other visual things but senses that have become forgotten due to their obviousness are that of smell, touch and taste. One may not forget how lucky they are to see or hear because there are many deaf and blind people that remind us every day but when it comes to these other senses, they are taken for granted.
I shall focus on smell. The scent of a flower, the homely smell of baking, the fragrance of your lotion, the cologne of that guy who sits next to you in class, the scent of your mom’s spray that you used to steal once in a while. All these tell a story, a tale that can define one.
As I was getting ready for bed today after my shower, when I realized that I had so many perfume bottles since time immemorial and I had to get rid of some of them coz they were just filling up my dressing table. So I took a relatively empty bottle of ‘innocence’ and got ready to start disposing but something prompted me to remove its cap and have one last sniff at its fragrance. What happened after that was pretty amazing.
I got these very vivid flash backs of my high school memories, mostly the ones that occurred on a nice day that I hadn’t forgotten my spray. I remembered my best friend from high school, the Sunday services, the crazy Saturday evening and night’s entertainment, our dance crew and most of all, my books. I used to have a bad habit of spraying my novels so that I could distinguish them, or maybe it was just a sign of love, but either way juts that small sniff reminded me of all those novels I love. It also reminded me of the novels I used to write and all those stories I had with in me.
After such an intense experience, I took bottle no2 and gave it a sniff. This took me back 5 years to my primary school days. Memories of my crush, my best friend in primary school, the tedious KCPE period and above all the party we had before leaving school.
Bottle number three reminded me of last semester which qualifies to be the best semester I have ever had at university. It reminded me of my best friend who changed campus this semester, training, a white scarf I saw given (translate stole) by a friend of mine, tournaments and programming with visual C++ which was so awesome.
Having so many memories I took my current perfume and sniffed. It reminded me of nothing! Maybe it’s because it’s a new scent and it needs time to mature in my long term subconscious memory, I’m not so sure (I don specialize in psychiatry) but I’m sure some day it will remind me of his post.
Somehow at the end of the day I found myself holding on even tighter to these empty bottles of perfumes because they meant even more to me than the full bottle. They held memories, stories of different phases in my convoluted life. They each held a tale of strong friendship, riveting books, early teenage boy crushes and many more that make me who I am today.
I pose this challenge to my readers. Go to your dressing able and take a trip down the lane of your life’s memories.

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