I remember, what feels like fucking ages ago, trying hard to not go the english route. I wanted to write in college and be artistic. But when push came to shove i stumbled more into geology through the effect of my teachers in high school, and I very glad indeed. What is ironic now is that my writing for science is awful, my grammer is terrible! Looking back i'm glad of what I chose.
I'm 21 and i started on this in 2003, which would make me 16 when i first started this thing. Its awesome having a journal to track where I was back then and through time but I dont update it as much as I used to.
I think an artistic leave of absence is a cool thing to do (as long as the folks are okay with it) just dont go and make alot of money -cuase you wont want to go and spend it on tuition!