I stared at the red eyes glowing back at me from that New Mexico spring. A stingray. In the desert. Nobody expected it. Three years of grant rejections led me here. My advisor called it 'exploratory work'—academic speak for 'probably useless.' I almost quit after the third funding denial. Now everyone's calling it groundbreaking. Potamotrygon rubroculus. I named something that will outlive me. But I still check my credentials twice before speaking at conferences. Still wonder if I belong in rooms where people discuss my own discovery. The stingray adapted to impossible conditions—survived in a desert when everyone said it couldn't exist there. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to convince myself I belong in science. Funny how you can find something extraordinary and still feel ordinary. The red eyes keep staring back, like they know something I don't. #Science #ImposterInTheRoom #LabLife