I Tracked Dragonflies. I Lost Track of Myself.

I used to think the hardest part would be the fieldwork—netting dragonflies, logging water temps, pretending I could outsmart a spreadsheet. But it’s the waiting that gets you. Waiting for data to make sense. Waiting for someone to care. Everyone’s excited about our discovery: early life stages matter more than adult ones. The press release calls it a breakthrough. I call it another night staring at graphs, wondering if I missed something obvious, if my exhaustion bled into the results. We say it’s useful. I’m not sure what’s useful about realizing we’ve been looking in the wrong place for years. My PI says, “Good job.” I think about all the dragonflies I couldn’t save. All the windows we missed. I used to believe in progress. Now I just want to sleep. #Science #ScienceFatigue #LabBurnout