The structure and pace of this one is truly fantastic. I can’t pin it down but the skill with which you evoke that feeling of immortality, confidence and happiness in your third paragraph is glorious…

I loved the italicising for the song as well!

Just a brilliant, brilliant piece of writing – it strikes a chord… MH :)

You’ve made a simple pleasure into something epic. That’s mad skill.

Beautiful. I love how you describe it as your “secret song shame.” You do a great job of making this experience relatable (is that a word?) by which I mean as I was reading this I felt myself thinking “I have a song like that!” So… what song is this story about?

I’m glad you got something from it, I too have a song like that but for this piece I kinda…had a combination of songs in mind. By ‘common room’ I mean the one for my sixth form at school and there was a lot of unfortunate taste in popular music. Any fast/upbeat song from the top 40 for last five years or so would fit most probably. Searching around, the song I’d ideally want for the memory would be something like Fireflies by Owl City, a good beat and pop-like .(Not that I’m suggesting it’s not a good song, in any way!) I may find the perfect song and will update the tags if I do.

Haha. My sister just had me start listening to Owl City… and I kinda like “Fireflies.” It’s funny that’s the song you pick on. But yes, I understand the aversion to Top 40 stuff, although, where I live Owl City’s not even on the radar.