Today I did something that made me feel like an adult, and a really old person, and a kind of young person, all at once.

I bought a subscription to the print edition of newspaper. This makes me feel like an adult, because since I'm no longer a dependent or a student, newspapers don't suddenly fall from the sky. And also because, now that they've stopped falling from the sky*, I suddenly have some desire to read them (on Sunday mornings, before I change out of my pajamas/what I wore out the night before, maybe with coffee). And then it makes me feel like a really old person, because I'm buying a print paper and also because I'm getting the Observer and my purchase was (at least in part) inspired by an article in the Times about how much-beloved editor Peter Kaplan is leaving, which means I clearly missed the boat on what everyone else thought was a substantial and wonderful period in the paper's history. And then it makes me feel young because, rather than thinking of it as paying for a service I needed, I kind of think paying for the print edition is like a charitable donation because I could totally read all the articles online at work except that I want print journalism to keep existing. Also, because I don't really have time to add more online publications to my repertoire. Also, because I subscribed to the Observer, not the Times, and because I did this since I know I don't have the attention span or the free time on weekday mornings to accomodate a daily.

Next stop: The Weekender.


*There is some nerd-relevant "make it rain" reference to be made here, perhaps.