One study participant said, “I will work until everything is done and everything is beautiful and wonderful … And if I have to not sleep for three days to do that, that's what happens.” For students with autism, this inclination could manifest as putting in extra effort to make eye contact when speaking with another person, even if it makes them uncomfortable. This pressure to take on more and hide parts of themselves can lead to burnout and have negative impacts on mental health.
I chose this section because it’s extremely relatable to me as a STEM student who’s spent countless nights up staying up completing assignments or studying. Most community college STEM students are like me and want the perfect 4.0 to transfer to a nice University, so we all get our assignments to look “beautiful and wonderful” to get a perfect grade on it. This article is important to me because I’m more aware of neurodivergent students and the challenges they face, with my new knowledge I’ll be able to be more supportive towards my fellow future STEM classmates. I also think this article is important for STEM students because some of them could be neurodivergent students and this article could help them manage challenges they may have like work balancing. Now I’m not personally a neurodivergent student but I’ve noticed tons of the same traits are relatable to me which is interesting, overall I’m glad I chose this article because it’s really informative and helps you gather information about other people's struggles.