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It was a warm summer day. I was 17 and driving aimlessly around, radio blaring, with my best friend Misty.

Suddenly, the song “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys came on. Slyly, we both looked at each other and then, in almost perfect unison, started belting out the lyrics as loud as we could.

We never told anyone else. I mean, we were 17, supposedly the epitome of cool. We loved Nirvana, not some two-bit cheesy boy band. But so help us, every time we were together and one of their songs came on, we’d roll up the windows and sing our hearts out.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my first official guilty pleasure.

Since then, there have been many, many more (hello Ashlee Simpson CD).

But it’s my belief that guilty pleasures serve a very important function in society. They help us realize that while we may be sick, sick individuals for having a secret crush on the guys from Tears for Fears (What? Just me?), we are not alone in our sickness.

Just like opinions, everyone has a guilty pleasure or two, which when finally confessed, helps us bond as people.

Take for instance, my boyfriend, who for our purposes here we’ll call Babykins Cuddlebug to avoid any embarrassment on his part. It was a mutual obsession of the campy TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” that helped propel him from the status of casual acquaintance to potential father of my children.

I don’t remember who let it slip first, but the next thing you know, we are sneaking kisses in-between deep conversations of who is truly the better vampire, Spike or Angel.

In an effort to get to know my co-workers better, I decided to find out what their guilty pleasures are. Unfortunately, I just ended up discovering most of them are a bunch of scaredy little girls.

The few that did admit their guilty pleasures, though, I now feel truly closer to. For instance, when fellow reporter Allison Miles admitted to a habit of watching shows like “Hannah Montana” and “That’s So Raven,” it made me feel better about my own sick obsession of the horribly cheesy Nickelodeon show “iCarly.”

When Shari Prenzler on the copy desk admitted she eats frozen miniature Reese’s cups and drinks Diet Coke for breakfast while playing Guitar Hero on the weekends, my own weekend habit of watching “Spongebob Squarepants” while still in my pajamas at 6 p.m. and drinking a beer didn’t seem so bad.

Gabe Semenza admitted a love for rapper Eminem, to which I laughed and made a mental note to blackmail him in the near future. Copy editor Lauren Hightower loves to go to CBS.com and watch countless hours of the old 80’s TV show “Beauty and the Beast,” while Bob Zavala loves telenovelas.

Reporter David Tewes, supposedly “joking,” said he actually enjoys watching the Weather Channel (however, in his defense, he is like 107 years old).

And believe it or not, without any sort of threat from a sharp object, editor Chris Cobler admitted he liked “High School Musical.”

Some of the responses I received were not suitable for print (Gloria and Sonny, you naughty, naughty little heathens you) and may make me seek out therapy in the near future. And in Nick Roger’s case, his guilty pleasures are illegal on many fronts.

But all in all, I think my little experiment of finding out people’s guilty pleasures was a success (particularly on the blackmail front).

We all need our little guilty pleasures in life. I mean, sure, we could pretend that we always watch CNN, read Shakespeare and have great taste in music. But when it comes down to it, wearing out your DVD of “Lost Boys,” jamming to the “Grease 2” soundtrack and dipping your Wendy’s fries in a Frosty are the little things that make life worth living.

Aprill Brandon is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6514 or abrandon@vicad.com.