Afew weeks ago, I decided that I needed some sort of change. I was feeling stifled, stagnated and perhaps even stymied. My life at Dartmouth seemed pretty routine -- classes, activities, friends, the usual. I wanted to alter things in a way that would be subtle, yet effective. And so, I did the only thing a logical, discerning student would do. I changed fonts.
In case this seems strange, I'll just mention that one thing I've noticed about Dartmouth students is that we all seem to have a font of choice. It's as if we expect to illustrate a little bit of personality in the midst of our literary and analytic efforts. I, for example, was a die-hard Helvetica fan.
This is not to be confused with Helvetica Narrow, which is too constricting and a different font altogether. All the letters look tall and thin because they are so squished.(Although, I must admit that Helvetica Narrow certainly came in handy freshman fall when I accidentally wrote my first paper in one and a half spaced instead of double spaced type. Helvetica Narrowpromptly cut the work in half).
Anyway, back to regular Helvetica. I liked the way the letters were sort of bubbly, but small. I could not be accused of writing a short paper and trying to pass it off as long. After my brush with the deceptive and mischievous Helvetica Narrow, I decided to play it safe. No more font games for me. I wasn't getting away with anything, and I sort of liked it that way.
For two years, I wrote every paper in Helvetica. I defended it against those trying to convince me of the wonders of Palatino and Geneva.
Somewhere along the way, however, I began to get sick of Helvetica. I got annoyed at the way it didn't look like a real typewriter. I had begun to think of Helvetica as kind of affected. It was sort of a fluffy font.
And so, the quest began. It was a gradual discovery process, to be completed only by trial and error. I wrote a paper in Palatino, just to see if all my friends were right. No go. Palatino seemed too hard, too rough. Times was certainly too small, Chicago too dark, and New York too big.
During this period of exploration, I had a take-home midterm that required me to write in Courier. Could this be the change I was looking for? It would seem that fate was not on my side. As everyone in my English 52 class will probably attest, Courier is not the font of choice. It's far too big, and at least on the computer screen, way too spaced out. Although it's easy to fill up the page with Courier, writers and readers alike know that there aren't too many words there.
In my frustration, I toyed with the idea of using one of those fonts with cool names like MT Extra and Zapf Dingbats. I should have known that their creative nomenclatures masked a hidden truth, however, for these fonts are completely crytic. At least when I read the name Symbol I knew that I wouldn't understand it. But Zapf Dingbats could have been anything. Imagine my disappointment to see it look like symbols.
I was left, therefore, with only a few remaining choices. Avant Garde sounded sort of fresh. I liked the idea of the creative me, forging ahead and writing in an avant garde font. Then I saw it -- big round letters with weird spacing. And, isn't it a bit pretentious to call a font avant garde? What makes one font more innovative than all the others? I'm certainly not one for elitism. Avant Garde was out.
My decision was finally narrowed down to Bookman and New Century Schoolbook -- generic, but solid fonts. I wonder if the fact that both the names relate to academics subtly influenced me. Could I be trying to become more intellectual though my font choices? Probably not. I certainly would have preferred a city name over a book company, or whatever New Century Schoolbook is. Something about New Century appealed to me though.It was straightforward, to the point. I felt like I was getting back to the basics. No unpronounceable names or fancy lettering techniques there.
I decided to think of New Century not as boring, but as a classic. Sort of like classic Levis. It's the way a font should look.
And so, my big attempt to break free and create change in my life ended with a pretty conventional choice. I figure this could be a metaphor for my life, but I haven't exactly figured out the whole analogy yet. We'll see how long New Century lasts. I'm not sure if I'm cut out to be completely traditional. Maybe the next time around I'll be bold enough to choose Zapf Dingbats.
