We're in a Void. So Am I

Spent three years proving Earth sits in a cosmic void—a billion light-years of mostly nothing. The irony wasn't lost on me. Staring at those baryon acoustic oscillations, I realized I'd been measuring my own emptiness. Every failed grant proposal, every 'minor revision' that took six months, every conference where I smiled through imposter syndrome. The data was clean. The void model fit perfectly. Matter flows away from low-density regions, just like how opportunities seemed to drift past me while I stayed frozen in place. My advisor called it 'groundbreaking research.' I called it Tuesday. Turns out the universe is expanding faster than expected because we're sitting in nothing. Makes sense. I've been sitting in nothing for years, watching everything else accelerate away from me. The sound waves from the Big Bang went silent 13.8 billion years ago. Sometimes I wonder if mine did too. #Science #LabBurnout #AcademicVoid