I don’t know why I did it or what’s going to happen now that I did. But, finally, I dug up the courage to drop my accounting h211 class, my business management classes, and break ties with the business college to do something that I want to do because I want it—not because I want it to make me money.

Meet the new Mark, a communication major. My dream job would be to work in layout or copy at some kind of magazine—Physology Today, Runner’s World, or The New York Times Magazine top my list. I’ve always liked words, characters, symbols, numbers—maybe that’s how I slipped into my former major, accounting. But it’s more that I like the shapes and styles and presentation of numbers and letters and symbols. I’m a typography geek. I grammar-check road signs and menus at restaurants, I get irritated when I have to use the 10-items-or-less lines at supermarkets, and I have an impressive fascination with type faces and ampersands.

So maybe my first year of college was a waste. But I’ve made appointments with communication advisers and advisers from the Arts & Sciences college so I can transition. I’m going to need to apply to the college, find out about the honors requirements, which classes I need to take, and how to get myself on track.

It was kind of exhilirating to take the leap, to drop those business classes, to tell my current adviser that I’m out. It will be even better to get back on campus and start over. I guess I’m really not starting over; I guess I’ve really always been a communication major. I freelanced for The Lantern and got an article published first quarter, I’m the Content Editor-in-Chief of Fisher Ink, a section editor for The Journal of Undergraduate Research, and have made tentative plans with some friends about starting our own publication this year.

I’ll be back on campus next Sunday. I have appointments the very next day to plan out my life. Oh—and remind me to ask about scholarships. I really need money.

But the best part of all of this is that, ever since I made the switch, I’ve been more open. I’m listening to Jason Mraz. I wouldn’t have been caught dead doing that before.