Text version of the episode:
5. The smell of the GATE test teacher
I think I was probably six or seven years old when I recognized that everybody has a different smell. Like, when I come home to my house, I don’t really smell anything unless there’s food cooking, or I need to do laundry or, there was just a big party last night. But, when I go over to someone else's house, sometimes it smells like dogs, sometimes it smells like lettuce, sometimes it smells like spices and coffee, and sometimes it just smells like humans that are not me.
The first time I realized that people have a smell, it was in third grade. It was the middle of class and I got a slip to call me out of class from the office, and the slip said “Go to room 26”. And so I went to room 26 and I walked in, and it was kinda dark in there, and there was just one teacher sitting there. On his desk he had a bunch of puzzles. He told me to sit down and we were gonna work through all these puzzles, and he was going to time me and see how good I did.
So I came closer and I sat down, and the first thing that I realized was that he smelled overwhelmingly like microwave Chef Boyardi ravioli – which is gross. It was kind of like the smell of ketchup and barbeque sauce, and fake meat, and he was probably sweaty, too. But, in any case, that was the first time that I realized that not everyone smells the same way. Long story short, I tested into the GATE program and I didn’t even tell my parents that I made it in until like two months later when they found out I was going to be bussed to a whole different school.
The only thing I really took away from this was that ravioli stinks, and some people are smelly.