I used to think saving the Ope’ape’a would feel heroic. Turns out, it mostly feels like waiting. Waiting for dusk, for a glimpse of wings, for someone to care. I log sightings into a website that probably no one checks. My advisor says it’s important, but the forest gets smaller every year and the bats get harder to find. I keep telling myself they matter—ecology, balance, insects—but sometimes I wonder if I’m just clinging to a vanishing thing because I don’t know how to let go. The hardest part isn’t the empty trees. It’s realizing I’m not sure what I’m saving: the bats, or the part of me that still believes this work means something. #Science #ScienceFatigue #FieldworkBlues