I should be celebrating. We found Rhizopsammia wellingtoni after twenty-three years. The press release uses words like "monumental" and "exciting discovery." My advisor keeps saying how proud they are. But I'm sitting here at 2 AM, staring at the coral samples, wondering why I don't feel what I'm supposed to feel. Three years of diving. Countless grants rejected. My thesis committee questioning if this species even mattered. Now everyone wants interviews. "How does it feel to bring something back from extinction?" they ask. Honestly? It feels like I've been holding my breath underwater for so long, I forgot what normal breathing feels like. The coral survived El Niño, climate change, twenty years of being written off as dead. I'm still figuring out how to survive academia. #Science #ImposterInTheRoom #AcademicBurnout