Fifteen again, for a moment.

Confession: I have listened to Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus's duet more than fifteen times this morning (much to my chagrin, since I hate to support Taylor Swift when I can avoid it). The truth is I am a sucker for a good acoustic ballad, particularly one that touches upon life as a teenager. I'm not sure how much longer Taylor can get away with pumping out these high school ballads, but I'll embrace this live version fully. I hold the ultimate candle to my teenage years--even more than the average person. I absolutely adored my high school years. I wouldn't go as far as saying they are or will be my "glory days" but I look back on my isolated simple happiness, and I long for that sort of optimistic clean slate.

This is not to say that my life has been hard by any means. It has been magical, as far as lives go. But, back then my world at Lawrenceville was limited to a large plot of land with the greenest grass I'd ever seen, wonderful red brick buildings, and friends I came home to every evening. It was a life worth being captured in a country song. We'd lie on our backs on Anne's bed with our legs up against her wall talking about anything and everything. I'm pretty sure our respective boyfriends dominated the topic of conversation, but now I realize their presence was far more meaningful. Gazing up at the ceiling and occasionally turning our heads to look at each other and laugh, our shared outlook was rosy and we were simply happy.

The naive happiness of the song's lines resonate with me stronger than I can explain. I feel fifteen again and my heart pulls in my chest--not because I miss the boy I loved when I was fifteen, but because I long for the girls--all three of them--who sang my life song along with me back then. As a fifteen year old girl, you think you should be singing a metaphorical duet with a boy, but in my case I was already singing one with my best friends. This is why the studio version falls flat. It is much more moving as a duet. It's a little odd that Miley claims that she and Taylor are best friends, which I'm sure they're not. For the sake of my metaphor, I'll believe her. As it turned out, at 15 I happened to be singing a quartet. I've been lucky to have found myself still singing along with my girls, but this live performance makes me tear up a bit wishing that Anne, Stacylyn and Jennie were still the last people I saw before bed each night.

So here I am at work all choked up. "Take a deep breath, girl."