In fifth grade, our class held a lip-syncing competition. Students were paired up, got to pick their own songs, then choreographed dance moves or elaborate hand gestures to accompany lyrics to the likes of Weird Al's "Amish Paradise" or Alanis Morrisette's "Head Over Feet."

My friend Julia and I teamed up to take on Bonnie Raitt's "Something To Talk About," where we dressed up like Dennis Quaid and Julia Roberts. Heartbreakingly, I had to be Dennis because I had a mushroom cut — a tragedy that will forever prevent me from cutting my hair any shorter than chin length.

However, the coolest girls (or ones whose parents let them borrow CDs), lip synced to songs from Jann Arden's Living Under June. And I sat there wearing my dad's suit jacket, suddenly self-conscious of how childlike I looked, and thought, "this is what grown-ups listen to!"