I've been staring at this solar flare data for hours, watching something massive hurtle toward Earth. The irony isn't lost on me. I monitor cosmic disasters for a living while my own career feels like it's disintegrating in real time. Every X-class flare I track reminds me of every grant rejection, every failed experiment, every advisor meeting where I felt smaller than the data points I collect. The sun throws tantrums that can kill satellites and crash power grids. I throw tantrums in empty conference rooms because my research proposal got torn apart again. Both events are predictable if you know what to look for. The warning signs. The building pressure. The inevitable release. I'm supposed to issue alerts about space weather threatening infrastructure. But who warns about the slow-burning flare that academia becomes? The one that targets your confidence, your sleep, your belief that any of this matters? We prepare for solar storms. I forgot to prepare for this one. #Science #LabAnxiety #ScienceFatigue