and we have never had a real tree since! the end 🎄

the couches, the rug, the ornaments, the walls—FLOODED with little mites. my poor mom, alone, with her open wound on one side and a baby on her other hip, had to battle back the biblical swarm with a vacuum for hours.

she loads my sister and i onto the bus. she walks home. she opens the door. she screams. the entire living room is COVERED in little black bugs that have awakened from their slumber in the tree. the real tree has betrayed her.

my mom LOVED getting the real trees. she loved the smell and the cheer it brought to the house. she insisted on getting a real one every year. we had just decorated our beautiful, real tree that weekend.

she was on bed rest most of the time but insisted on walking my sister and i up the street to the school bus stop in the morning. she had my baby brother, 1 year old at the time, in bed at home. my dad was on duty at the fire house.

the week before christmas 2009, my mom was recovering after a full mastectomy to remove her breast cancer. she had an open wound in her chest and a fluid bag attached to her.

a sweet treat! my go to recently has been a double dark chocolate magnum mini ice cream bar with a swipe of creamy peanut butter☺️

this is derogatory and an attack towards CVS

As a final, final note: this change in policy is a disservice to all second-year graduate students and to the scientific community at large. Please reach out to grfp@nsf.gov to advocate for second year graduate students everywhere, and especially bridge program students!!

(9/9) In effect, the policy undermines the very mission of the GRFP by narrowing the applicant pool and excluding innovative, hardworking scientists the program is meant to support.

(8/9) since they aren’t guaranteed admission into the CUNY PhD directly after completing the MS. With this eligibility change, bridge students are now barred from submitting a competitive application before they have had the chance to complete, or even begin, a substantial research project.

(7/9) My program is funded by the Simon’s Foundation, so if a 1st year were to be awarded the fellowship, it would be unable to be applied. Even if it were able to be, the remaining 2 years of the fellowship would be unable to be applied,

(6/9) To then require students to develop a three-year research proposal just months after entering graduate school and essentially within a month of starting a research project is unreasonable.

(5/9) In my program, the CUNY GC Masters in Astrophysics, a two-year bridge program, students are not even matched with research projects until October of their first year.

(4/9) My story is echoed in my peers’ experiences. In this way, I cannot emphasis enough how this change in policy is a disservice to students who do not come from R1 institutions, and/or take a nontraditional route to a PhD — like students in bridge programs.