As a college student, I did laundry as infrequently as I could get away with.
Disclaimer: I generally wore clean clothes, but that meant I frequently was down to an empty closet before I headed to the laundromat.
I only remember it being a problem once.
It was an unseasonably warm spring my sophomore year.
I overslept my alarm, waking in a panic.
I had an interview on the other side of campus in 10 minutes.
It was a 5-minute bike ride, but my bike had a flat tire.
It was a 20-minute walk to the building, but I didn’t have that much time.
Running was the only option.
I dashed to the closet to get my “good shirt,” the one I saved for special occasions like interviews.
Panic!! It wasn’t hanging in the closet!!
Oh, that’s right! I wore it a few days ago!
I dug it out of the dirty clothes hamper, threw it on and started running.
It was already 90 degrees and sunny. I could feel the sweat running down my back as I sprinted across campus.
I reached the interview with 1 minute to spare.
Sitting in the lobby waiting to be called, I made a horrific discovery…
The fresh sweat of sprinting across campus had somehow “activated” the dried sweat from a few days ago.
My shirt absolutely stunk of body odor!
Did you catch what I just did there?
I wrote “My shirt stunk.”
I didn’t write “I stunk.”
For some reason, the story is less embarrassing when I say that my shirt had the odor, rather than me.
Blame the Clothes
Remember this lesson if you ever need to have “The Body Odor Conversation” with someone.
Being told you have an odor is never pleasant.
Which is worse, though:
- Someone telling you that your body smells?
- Someone telling you that your clothing smells?
Again, neither is pleasant to hear, but blaming the clothing feels a little less personal.
This month’s training
This month’s live training is about how to have the body odor conversation.
“Blame the clothes” is just one of the pieces of advice in the training.
Have a great week!
Peace,
Ryan
