No taste. No smell. This has been the story of my life for the past seven months. What started off as a simple case of seasonal allergies at the end of April turned into three positive COVID cases, 14 days of quarantine, a couple mental breakdowns, a few tears shed, and loss of the ability to taste or smell.

The first month of me not having the capability of tasting or smelling became a running joke with my family and friends.

“Chloe, come smell this candle….oh wait.”

“Doesn’t this taste so good?….Oh wait.”

“Does this taste funny to you?…Oh wait.”

My response would always be “How would I know?”

While losing one’s sense of taste as well as smell has its downsides, it does come with some unique benefits. For starters, everything and everyone smells good because I wouldn’t be able to decipher the difference. With food, I can eat anything I wouldn’t normally enjoy, plus the additional usage of sriracha on everything (when I say everything, I mean everything).

The only issue I’ve had to deal with the loss of taste is the fact that foods I used to enjoy taste repulsive now. Dark Chocolate tastes like tree bark, strawberries taste down right bitter, and the love of my life CheezIts taste moldy.

When it comes to my sense of smell, I tend to worry about whether or not I smell, because how the heck would I know!

As I approach the eight month anniversary of losing both my sense of taste and smell, I wonder if this is my new normal, if I from now on will be left with only three senses. While that’s a big pill to swallow, I try to look forward to the future and look at the positive side effects rather than focusing on the negatives. While my life now lacks an extra sense of flavor, I look forward to filling the void with new possibilities (I’m overexaggerating a tad bit aren’t I?).