I Study Death Pools. I Live in One

Six thousand feet down, we found water so toxic it kills everything immediately. Hypersaline. Zero oxygen. The kind of environment that should be empty. Except it wasn't. Extremophile microbes everywhere. Thriving in conditions that would stun any normal organism in seconds. My PI called it 'groundbreaking research into early life conditions.' I called it Tuesday. Because here's what the grant proposal didn't mention: I've been living in my own death pool for three years. The lab that drains everything from you but somehow keeps you alive. The advisor meetings that should kill your confidence but don't quite finish the job. Those microbes found a way to survive in impossible conditions. Maybe that's what we all are—extremophiles pretending this is normal. I submitted the paper last week. Still here. Still breathing. Still trying to understand why life persists where it shouldn't. #Science #LabBurnout #GradSchoolLife