How does it matter that academic lives are predominantly cast in the ideal of a linear trajectory? How do researchers attempt to align their messy realities with this imaginary? How do these visions change as researchers advance in their careers? While Chap. 5 focused on the different timelines that order academic lives, this chapter examines the three main stages when researchers move into and through academic research environments in the hope of attaining a stable position. It introduces the reader to anticipatory uncertainties, imagined futures, and retrospective reflections on what it means to have a life in academic research.