I Tracked a Visitor. I Lost Myself.

I spent weeks watching the data—A11pl3Z, a ghost from somewhere else, streaking through the system like it owed us nothing. The orbit was wild, numbers I’d never seen, but the real chaos was inside my head. Every time I logged another observation, I wondered if anyone would care, or if I was just feeding the machine—another name in a footnote, another blurry streak on a stretched-out sky. I barely slept, chasing old survey images, hoping for a hint that I hadn’t missed something obvious. My advisor said, “Good work, keep going.” I heard: “Don’t slow down.” The object will pass and be gone. I’ll still be here, orbiting the same doubts, wondering if I’ll ever escape. #Science #ScienceFatigue #GradSchoolLife