I spent months buried in papers about chicken-sized killers, the ones nobody puts on museum banners. My advisor called them 'evolutionary footnotes.' I called them proof that being small didn’t mean being irrelevant. But every time I tried to explain why Microraptor mattered, I felt like I was shrinking too. My grant got rejected—again. The feedback said, 'Interesting, but not impactful.' I started to believe it. I watched colleagues chase T. rex headlines while I catalogued another tiny claw. I told myself it was about the science, not the spotlight. But late at night, alone with fossil scans and a cold mug of coffee, I wondered if I’d ever be more than a footnote myself. #Science #ScienceFatigue #ImposterInTheRoom