Gemotions

The email sat in Eleanor’s inbox, a stark white rectangle in the dim glow of her laptop. Dr. Ramirez’s subject line: "Important Announcement." Her fingers, usually a blur across the keyboard, hesitated over the delete button. The semester had been a slog, each day a struggle to get out of bed, let alone write. She finally clicked, and her jaw tightened. She was losing her advisor. He was leaving for a position at a prestigious think tank. A wave of exhaustion, heavy and suffocating, pressed down on her chest.

She leaned back in her chair, the cheap plastic creaking in protest. Her gaze drifted to the overflowing stack of books on her desk, each one a monument to a topic she couldn’t seem to get excited about anymore. The research felt like trudging through waist-deep mud. Now, she'd have to find a new advisor, to start again.

“Wonderful,” she muttered, the word brittle and lacking conviction.