font snob.

You know what one of the most annoying parts about going back to grad school has been?

It was being forced to use Times New Roman again.

You guys. I hate Times New Roman.

Times New Roman makes me feel like I’m in high school again. Seriously. Can you think of a more boring font than Times New Roman?

 (My ire is not reserved for Times New Roman. Everyone hates Comic Sans, but if you ask me, Papyrus is a worse offender. Papyrus shows up when you least expect it. I saw it on a folk singer’s business card the other day, and I immediately took him less seriously. And don’t even get me started on Curlz.)

Blech.

BLECH.

When I wrote papers in high school, Times New Roman was the required font. Nothing else. Never. Even through most of college, Times New Roman was the font of choice. It appeared that I was doomed to live in a Times New Roman hell for the duration of my academic career.

But one professor said no.

Actually, he said, “You can use Times New Roman, but I prefer Palatino.”

Palatino opened the door for me.

Palatino was my first foray into the world of “still easy to read but thank God they’re not Times New Roman” serif fonts. All my other papers still had to be in Times New Roman, but that lone art history professor allowed me to spread my font wings. To my Times New Roman-exhausted eye, my papers for his class looked so much more beautiful than Times New Roman.

 Plus, Palatino is slightly bigger than Times New Roman, so all my papers seemed longer. Bonus.

After that life-changing discovery, I switched all my personal documents to Palatino. It was all Palatino, all the time for YEARS.

And then, I discovered Georgia.

(Georgia is the font you’re looking at right now. It’s nice, isn’t it?)

Suddenly, Palatino was over. Georgia was IT.  Looking at Palatino gives me flashbacks to arduous art history papers examining the history of photographic processes, and Georgia had no associations with schoolwork whatsoever. I loved Georgia. I used Georgia in all of my work emails, and it looked great.

Until Cambria came along.

 Cambria is my current favorite font. (I would use it in this blog, but it’s not one of the font options. Damn you, Blogspot.) These fonts – Palatino to Georgia to Cambria – aren’t really that different, but those tiny variations can really alter your perception. Compared to Cambria, Georgia suddenly looked immature and chubby. Compared to Palatino, Times New Roman looked so basic.

And I’m back to being stuck with Times New Roman.

First world problems, I know. But I feel like one of the small victories of adulthood was being able to choose my own font. And there will come a time when I will be able to choose my own font once more.

Maybe it will still be Cambria. I do stick with my chosen font for years at a time, and I’ve only been using Cambria for about three. But maybe I’ll move on… I’m looking at you, Garamond.