Lab notebook, unsent: Everyone else is excited. The camera caught the jird—finally, proof it’s still out there. I should be thrilled. Instead, I’m staring at the grainy photo, wondering if this is all I’ll have to show for a year of waiting. One image. A blip in the dark. I’ve spent months setting up traps, checking batteries, hoping for a glimpse. Most nights, I get nothing but sand and silence. My advisor calls it a breakthrough. I call it barely enough to keep going. I’m not sure what’s rarer: the animal, or the feeling that any of this matters when the data is always just out of reach. #Science #ScienceFatigue #FieldworkBlues