Hello there friends!

Sorry about missing August’s newsletter. I was a bit occupied (see below). Before I knew it, August had turned into halfway-through-September

Before we say “Happy Halloween,” let’s review September and August as one!

Blog Post?

Unfortunately, I was unable to post anything for the months of September and August. It sucks, as the post that I was meant to draft and then release was one I’ve been eager to write for a long while now. I’m REALLY hoping I have time to bang out a post before the end of October, even if it’s not my usual “spooky themed” one.

Here’s a link to the one last year on

Why? What Happened?

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of a PhD happened. Which is a fantastic lead into…

PhD Update!

We have been in “survival mode” for too long as I’m working on this paper. We’ve done multiple rewrites of sections at this point, but the longest part has been the stinking figures! Change one part of the graph, change the whole thing! And I’m very frustrated in past-Becca, who didn’t write down two key points of data that I need for one key graph.

Which leads me to October 1st, where that minor mistake has now grown into me needing to redo a set of experiments (again). And I had to re-optimize the experiment as a few key variables of the experiment changed enough since 2021.

Long story short: today was a rough day mentally (and physically; my back is still on fire from standing over the machine I was using for hours).

HOWEVER, I have some good news: I recently finished a science illustration workshop series! This is important because not only did I discover that I’m surprisingly good at Adobe Illustrator…

(That’s an endoplasmic reticulum that I made! Look! Look!)

…But the wonderful woman who runs the class was so enthusiastic that I wanted to be a science communicator after graduation, and has talked to me about starting my own science writing/editing/illustration business once I’m out of grad school!

We just have to survive gathering all of my research first.

SciComm Updates For the Fall?

I have set up another set of “Learn to Present Your Science” workshops with another graduate student, Jenna, this October! If you’re a student and you haven’t signed up yet, the QR code is below on the ad below (Thank you, Deirdre, for your lovely work as always!) or use the link here.

For personal scicomm projects: I have all of my big edits for the Science-based Dungeons and Dragons game, AND I commissioned amazing sketches for it! I just have to sit down and start rewriting.

Honestly, the first thing I need to focus on is my blog, and once I get that out, I can finish this project. I’m so close! But alas… the work that will let me graduate always comes first.

Cyclocross Season!

My favorite season, where I get on a bike, go over tree trunks, through rivers, run through sand, and so much more. I’ve had one race so far! It went great the first lap, and then the asthma hit me. That, and my derailleur hanger snapped, so I had to DNF my first race.

But I’m feeling good about the next one this weekend! I’m doing more preventative meds for my asthma so we don’t have another episode during a race.

Huh! I actually had more of an update than I was expecting! I thought for sure this newsletter was going to be 2-3 paragraphs that would sum up my PhD woes.

Anyhoooooo, I’m REALLY hoping that I can give you a “science paper is complete” update come the end of October! (That, and a new blog post, but I’ll take the former if I can’t have both).

Happy Fall, y’all!

-Becca