Have you ever smelled something and suddenly felt like a child again? There is a reason for that. Most of what we see, hear, and touch first travels to a “relay station” in the brain called the thalamus before reaching other areas. Smell is different. Signals from the nose go to the olfactory bulb, which connects directly to the amygdala, which handles emotion, and the hippocampus, which helps form memories. Because of this direct path, memories brought back by smell often feel more emotional and vivid than memories brought back by a picture or a word. Research also shows that smell memories often come from early childhood, more so than memories triggered by other senses.

This haiku captures something else too. The teenage years are when the brain works hardest at building a sense of self. Areas involved in thinking about who we are, and how others see us, are especially active during adolescence. One scent holds both versions of the speaker at once: the child who drew a smiling sun, and the teen who is still figuring out who she is becoming.