Why I stopped hating country music
Growing up means willing to be condemned by your former self


Read more on this story.
Listen to Dierks Bentley's song "I Hold On":
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Michael Brendan Dougherty is senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is the founder and editor of The Slurve, a newsletter about baseball. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, ESPN Magazine, Slate and The American Conservative.
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