love story: early days
couple of smitten 18 year olds, awe-struck, on an adventure, and falling in love! <3
Pantene shampoo and conditioner will forever smell like Japan to me.
When I was eighteen, Jake and I went with his family on a ten-day trip to Okinawa, Japan, and it was a surreal experience.
I took Pantene travel bottles with me, and when we got to the Airbnb, we discovered there was a shower ROOM. As in, one bathroom was basically all tile, with a drain in the middle of the floor, amazing water inlets, and all the glorious feelings of a giant walk-in of luxury.
When we came in from the East China Sea, from swimming and tide pool exploring and marveling at everything we saw, Jake and I went into that shower room and sprayed all the salt water off of each other in our ocean-y bathing suits.
I had the Pantene. I don’t think I’d ever used Pantene up until that point in my life, and I just loved the smell. Thought it was delicious. It made me happy. It still does, but now there are even more layers to it…
So I brought the shampoo and conditioner, new to me, and we rubbed it into each other’s salty hair, goofing off like the couple of teenagers we were…
In the shower room, delirious on half-way-around the world sunshine and salt water, the experiences of new beauty and whimsy every day, enjoying the amazing, welcoming culture of the island… and falling more and more deeply in love with each other.
We were babies. We’d been dating less than a year, and we were eighteen. But that was when I knew. That season of our love story was it for me: I realized I wanted to be with Jake for the rest of my life. I could see it. I could imagine it. I felt it deep in my bones.
So there we were, in a different country, head-over-heels for each other, adventuring all day every day, and traipsing back into this fun Airbnb, with our Pantene and laughter and kisses.
I’m on a short weekend trip right now (Ohio, not Japan 😜), and I brought Pantene.
They’re little travel bottles, and as I opened one in the shower, I wondered to myself whether they were actually Pantene, or if maybe I had just refilled the bottles with some other shampoo and conditioner at some point.
As I squeezed the first dollop into my palm and took a sniff, a grin crept over my face… Pantene!
And then, whoosh! Japan. Involuntarily. The tile room. The laughter and happiness. The ocean, and Jake’s eighteen-year-old skin and shaggy, curly hair.
Thanks, Pantene… Really. Truly. I love these memories. I love the strong scent-connection that makes me unexpectedly think of them. Brains are weird, and special memories are so cool, and it feels really wonderful to have this treasured, love-defined time in my life so intrinsically wound in with this specific scent so I can remember it so vividly when triggered.
To love and lifelong stories about it.
To scents that make us happy and adventures that stick with us forever.
P.S. That photo above really was taken in Okinawa, May 2017, and it’s one of my favorites! The radiant happiness is evident. 🥰
