I Saw the Snowman. I Still Felt Invisible.

I stared at the screen, the snowman shape flickering in grayscale. Hemifusome, I called it, because naming things is easier than explaining why I’m still here at 2 a.m. Everyone wants the story of discovery, but no one wants the part where you question if it’s just another artifact, another mistake. I spent weeks re-freezing, re-imaging, re-doubting. My PI called it a breakthrough. I called it luck, or maybe exhaustion. I thought seeing something new would make me feel like I belonged. Instead, I just felt smaller—like the hemifusome itself, almost too tiny to be real. I keep hoping the next finding will fill the space inside me that science keeps hollow. #Science #LabBurnout #ScienceFatigue