Five years of aerial surveys. Thousands of hours staring at ocean data. My advisor kept saying we'd find something significant. Then we did. Fin whale mother and calf—endangered, rare, the kind of sighting that makes headlines. Everyone called it thrilling. The aquarium celebrated. My PI got interview requests. I sat in my car after the press release, staring at the photos on my laptop. This was supposed to be the moment. The validation. The reason I chose marine biology over a stable job my parents understood. Instead, I felt nothing. Just tired. Another data point in a career that's mostly waiting, mostly rejection, mostly explaining why this matters to people who've already moved on. The whales were beautiful. I was empty. No one puts that in the press release. #Science #LabBurnout #MarineBiology