The Glass Stage

Janix Rafa Bautista thought being a first year in Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology would be the hardest thing she will ever face after a well-spent final year in STEM in high school. But between endless theoretical, reports, practicums, all-nighters, and trying to decode the mysteries of adulting (like savings and feelings), Janix is slowly realizing that growing up doesn't come with a syllabus.

As the pressure mounts, Janix begins to fracture-long nights without sleep, errors she can't afford in the lab, and panic attacks she masks behind carefully crafted smiles. Her passion for science, once a source of hope, grows fragile beneath the weight of burnout, and her ambition tightens like a cage around her spirit. Yet, amid the cold sterility of the lab, she discovers quiet acts of rebellion: a professor who sees the person behind the grades, a friend from high school who reminds her how to breathe again, and fleeting moments of clarity that reignite the reason she began this journey.

The Glass Stage is a coming-of-age story about the invisible weight of high expectations, the quiet unraveling of burnout, and the resilience it takes to rebuild not just a future-but a self.