Dear sir

To whomever wrote the following on my NSF fellowship application review:

"The only reason candidate wants to pursue graduate study is because other colleagues have PhDs. Although proposed research is exciting and would benefit software systems, particularly Microsoft..."

I would like to offer a deep, heartfelt "Fuck. You." Did you even read my application, or did you just look at the fact I worked at Microsoft, have flashbacks to Windows 98 crashing in the middle of writing one of your technically shallow and uninsightful papers, and immediately conclude you didn't like me?

Not only do I have a very good idea of why I'm going back to grad school, but I guarantee I have a hell of a lot better idea than 90% of the people you gave awards to, most of whom are going to grad school because they can't figure out what the fuck else they will do when they graduate, and who will inevitably vanish into directionless oblivion soon after their grad school careers. I could quite happily stay in this job, but for some reason (one which is apparently beyond your comprehension), I voluntarily decided to take a drastic pay cut and up-end my life. Now, maybe you, my dear douche, are retarded enough and so incapable of independent thought that you would actually move to a different state and live off of $25k a year just because your friends did, but some of us actually, like, think through things. Try it sometime.

So, to reiterate, fuck you, fuck you, and, in closing, fuck you. If you didn't like me, or you thought the money would be better spent on someone with fewer financial means, fine, but you didn't have to be a dick about it.

Fuck you,
Nick