Give me a "brake"

So this past week I have been paranoid that the back brakes of my car were about to wear out and stop working. Every time I would brake when going slow speeds, my car would make a grinding noise. I just got new brakes this past summer, so thoughts of broken brakes were very distressing. Every time I went out driving, I would drive slow enough so that I'd be able to almost roll to a stop. (I only really drove back and forth to/from school, so slowness wasn't too much of a problem.)

Well, today I was able to finally take my car in to get a brake inspection.

Let's just say I felt like a twit.

"Umm... your brakes look almost brand new. The back ones are fine, they look like they might have been cleaned a little recently as well."
"But the grinding noise..."
"Maybe that's a hard spot on the pads, but they're fine."

They ended up waiving the charge for the brake inspection, and just said that I should come back for the rest of my needs. I guess I know where my next oil change will be.