Warning: Gross Entry Ahead

I've always been strangely sensitive to smells, smells of certain people. Most of them turn me off like you wouldn't imagine, but I can't help distinguishing the smells of different people. maybe I have a particularly sensitive nose or something; at any rate I view it as more of a curse than a blessing.

Was sitting next to my Chinese coursemate today and noticed how she has this particular kind of Chinese smell, a little musty and easily distinguishable. My housemate also has a smell peculiar to him, which isn't a bad smell but which puts me off immensely, I don't know why. And funnily most guys seem to have stronger smells than women, and these smells seem to be particularly warm and thick and musky.

Am I being rather gross here? I'm grossing myself out just attempting to put my thoughts into words.

I've heard of pheremones, which are supposed to be chemicals men and women give off to attract each other. I think these are what I can very distinctly smell - the pheremones of the people around me. I feel like the little boy in the movie who had the sixth sense. Smells are something so personal about people and in being able to detect how different people smell I feel as though I'm intruding into forbidden territory.