I used to think fieldwork would feel like discovery. Instead, I spent another dusk in Vienna’s cemetery, notebook in hand, pretending the cold didn’t seep through my gloves. Everyone loves the story: endangered hamsters thriving among gravestones, a rare win for urban wildlife. They want numbers, not the hours I spent squinting at burrows, not the guilt when I missed one. My PI calls it special. The BBC calls it synergy. I call it exhaustion. I’m supposed to feel hope—seeing life where there should be none. But all I feel is the pressure to prove it matters. To prove I matter. Sometimes I wonder if I’m just another animal clinging to the last safe place, hoping someone notices before it’s too late. #Science #ScienceFatigue #LabBurnout