A Simple Question That I Never Had Thought of Before...

Duane Rollins -

Icebreakers can be cringy because they are usually forced and unimaginative.

Not this one.

Yesterday in a team meeting I was asked a question I had never pondered before. The question was simple:

What is your favorite smell?

I bet many of you have never thought of that before either. It took me down a rabbit hole of figuring out which smells that I may hold above others.

There are three categories of smells that I came up with:

  1. Smells I like
  2. Smells that make me happy
  3. Smells that make me happy but may be weird

Category 1: Smells I Like

  1. Most types of wood (particularly pine and teak)
  2. Ocean water
  3. Popcorn
  4. Bacon
  5. New sneakers
  6. New car interiors
  7. New leather
  8. Chick-fil-A
  9. A summer time cookout
  10. Most things with lavender in it

Category 2: Smells That Make Me Happy

  1. Pepperoni pizza (reminds me of my childhood)
  2. SheaMoisture African Black Soap Body Wash (reminds me I’m clean)
  3. Fresh pack of blank computer paper (reminds me of the design process)
  4. Cornbread (reminds me of family)
  5. Potbelly’s oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (reminds me of my formative work years)

Category 3: Smells That Make Me Happy But May Be Weird

  1. Sharpened pencils (again, the design school thing)
  2. Mak (yes, I know my wife by her smell)
  3. Overheating electronics (some people just wanna see the world burn I guess)
  4. What the Rock is cooking (he doesn’t cook anymore sadly)
  5. Cucumbers (had too much fancy water at one point)

Bonus Category: Smells I Don’t Like

  1. Outside (all people who grew up in a Black household knows this smell)
  2. Burning tires/rubber
  3. Dial soap
  4. Mothballs
  5. Coffee (yuck…)
  6. Raw meat

So, what’s your favorite smell(s)?