Late Night Fiction It’s all in your mind

My House Smells Like Happy Memories

I came home this weekend for Easter, after being away for a little over a month. I walked in the door, and the smell of my house reminded me of last summer and my many nights in my room, unemployed and by myself in my room, between just graduating high school and about to come into the adventure that is college. In other words, it was a good time for me. Not the best as far as having someone else or anything like that; but just a good time for me. I'd say I was truly happy.

And it's interesting that of all the possible things, feelings, or events that I could have remembered based on the smell of this house, it was of last summer. It actually made me feel happy. I had many nights where I'd go to the next town over (where I spent the summer of '07, because of a girl), to get a Redbox movie and come back to watch it myself. Apparently those were the happiest memories of that time that happened in this house.

A few different things, I've noticed, repeatedly trigger good memories. Exhaling a Camel Wide through my nostrils reminds me of when I was at a beach house for a week last summer with my family. It's also interesting that they're always memories that happen during the summer. Maybe you're just not supposed to be happy during the rest of the year-- only the few months out of the year when you are supposed to enjoy life. But they say it's generally much easier to recall good memories than bad ones. It's interesting what that can show us about ourselves.