A Change in Plans, by Renée Szostek

Maria Skłodowska-Curie Monument by Marian Konieczny (with Stanislaw Ciechan) (Poland) 1964. This file was created and uploaded by User:Szater Ten plik został stworzony i dodany przez Wikipedystę:SzaterSzater Wikimedia Commons Polska Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

A Change in Plans
           
Relatively few people are aware that Marie Curie originally aspired 
to become an opera singer.  In her school choir, 
however, her classmates requested that she not sing.  
"Just move your lips," they commanded.  "Let 
us sing."  Disgusted, she drowned her
sorrows in her laboratory, discovering
elements more delightful and  
harmonious than any
melody ever
sung. 

Renée Szostek 

Renée Szostek earned master's degrees from Northwestern University and Yale, and an honours bachelor's degree from Michigan State.  She studied at the University of Chicago and University of Michigan. Renée won First, Second, and Third Place in the haiku category of the Seven Hills Review Literary Contest. She won Second and Third Place in the Southern Shakespeare Company's 2023 Sonnet Contest. Renée won Third Place in Poetry in the Vicksburg Cultural Arts Center's 2024 Tournament of Writers, and Third Prize for Poetry in the Westminster Art Festival in 2021 and 2020.  Her poems appeared in the Moonstone Arts Center's anthologies.