No one tells you how much fieldwork feels like losing. We watched the river change—crayfish everywhere, nets shredded, fish eggs gone. I logged the numbers, but what I really counted was how many times I thought about quitting. My advisor called it 'important data.' I called it a mess I couldn’t fix. The Kafue antelope, the fishers, the water—everything slipping, and my report just another unread PDF. I used to think science was about solutions. Now it’s just me, exhausted, watching invasive claws crawl through the water, and wondering if caring this much is a mistake. #Science #ScienceFatigue #FieldworkBlues