The Correlation Was Strong. I Wasn't.

I spent three months plotting oxygen and magnetic field data, hoping for a pattern that would make the late nights worth it. The lines matched up, almost perfectly, and I felt nothing. I should have been excited—first discovery, big implications, maybe even a press release. But all I could think about was how many times I’d stared at those graphs, doubting if I’d missed something obvious, if the link was real, or if I was just desperate for meaning. I haven’t slept properly since the first dataset crashed. My PI says we’re close to something big, but all I see are questions I can’t answer. The data is clean. I’m not. I keep rerunning the numbers, hoping the uncertainty will go away. It never does. #ScienceFatigue #LabBurnout #ImposterInTheRoom #Science