This essay describes how, as a scholar in gender diverse childhoods, I was collecting ethnographic data at the time of the 2016 election, and how this experience led to a series of jarring personal and professional transformations as a scholar writing for social justice. Not only did find that arts-based methods were particularly apt for capturing the election cycle events that reverberated through my data, but I also renewed my understanding of what it means to be a scholar for social justice in good times and bad. Recommendations for addressing researcher pain, despair and despondency conclude the paper.