Yesterday ––which was Monday, which will mean I am writing this on a Tuesday sometime around 5 a.m.–– I had an interesting conversation with two interesting people as I usually do on Mondays, and sometimes on Wednesdays. “You strike me as a font-person,” I never really thought of myself as a “font-person,” but nonetheless I do tend to notice fonts, and as I and my two fellow “font-people,” walked down the rather steep set of stairs leading outside I began to ponder about what it meant to be a “font-person.”

As a bit of a spine to this pondering of mine, I should supplement that this conversation began when we were turning in essays and my friend mentioned his usage of a brand new font. To which I and “font-person 2,” stood, watching in amazement as he explained why he chose it. This whole story sounds a bit crazy, and for a split second my mind went to, “It has come to this. You are having a full out discussion about fonts,” but as I took one step after the other down the staircase it became shockingly evident to me that the only font I was truly comfortable with was Times New Roman, and I was not ok with that.

How dare I, a person who spends an unnecessary amount of time on seemingly unimportant details, stick with the poster-child of an academic font? It just felt so wrong to stick to such a bland font when just last week I gave a 10-minute analytical presentation on the significance of Crayon names and colors in relation to a societal view of Trauma in Emma Donoghue’s Room.

Was I losing my touch?

Details are as important to me as making sure I coo at my dog, Charlie, everytime he walks past me (and that, is a very serious job of mine), so I spent the rest of my day bothered by the fact that I couldn’t break out of this Times New Roman prison I had trapped myself in after repeatedly using it for academia.

Then it occurred to me, that perhaps, I was not a “font-person.” What I mean is that essentially, the definition of a “font-person,” as supplied by my friend is: someone who enjoys using different types of font with the knowledge that they evoke certain reactions.

Basically, someone who really knows their way around the various Word Fonts, and I’ll be honest other than Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, Comic Sans, and Papyrus I’m pretty much an amateur. Sure I can tell you the difference between Paris Green and Scheele’s Green, but I just never find the need to switch from Times New Roman. Even on drafts.

I know this entire anecdote sounds like I'm going crazy at 5:30 a.m. on a Tuesday, but I think it holds a larger meaning than simply pertaining to fonts. Sometimes we all feel the need to take up a plethora of roles, and that is great, but sometimes we find out through pondering or trial and error that one of those roles is not for us. Sometimes multiple roles are not for us, and at first it seems weird, it seems wrong, and almost as if you’re just giving up. Hanging up a coat at the end of the day and going to sleep, but that is alright.

Times New Roman is my favorite font, and it took me a bit of thinking to realize that I didn’t need to search far and wide for a better one, but the best part about all of this is that someday perhaps I’ll run into a brand new font. One of which I feel better about using than Times New Roman, and on that day it will be okay to push Times New Roman to spot number two.

It is strange how the mind works, and I am constantly in awe of how a conversation about one topic can lead to a completely different topic, so to that, I thank my two lovely “font-people.”