S T E P H E N W I L L I A M H A W K I N G
J a n u a r y 8 , 1 9 4 2 - M a r c h 1 4 , 2 0 1 8
Yes, Stephen Hawking was known to the world as the guy who achieved massive breakthrough on the research of black holes, singularities, and just basically everything we know now in physics. But to me he was known as the person who was diagnosed with ALS.
Still to this day there is no cure for it, no precise cause for it, and still people all around the world are dying from it. Some ALS patients live longer than some and we don't know why — Stephen was one of them. And he did not let his disease rule over him.
I am reminded that even though I wrote the book on ALS 3 years ago, it doesn't mean the issue goes away. While watching a Marvel/Netflix show, one of the characters was diagnosed with ALS and it just hit me hard. We don't know why bad things happen to people. We don't know if this is fate or simply mechanics that the universe decided to fuck up. But we do know that our minds are strong enough to stand up for us even if our body isn't. Our mind is ours. (Putting aside the whole Matrix shit cos I'm not up for an existential crisis right now.)
And we can do wonders if we put 100% of our minds in it.
We can hope. We can dream. We can see a better future.
Rest in peace, Stephen — you once reached for the stars and now you've become the brightest one.
Love, Jei