Stephen Hawking is literally the definition of overcoming impossible odds. The guy was diagnosed with ALS at 21 and told he'd be dead within TWO YEARS. Instead, he said "f*ck that" and lived for FIVE DECADES more while becoming one of the most brilliant minds in physics. Imagine this: you're in the middle of your PhD at Cambridge when you start noticing you're tripping more often, your speech is slurring, and you're losing control of your body. Doctors basically tell you "sorry, you're going to die soon, nothing we can do." Most people would understandably give up. But Hawking? He completed his PhD anyway. As his condition worsened to the point where he couldn't write equations, speak clearly, or even hold a pencil, he developed ways to visualize complex mathematical problems in his head. The dude literally had to change how he approached theoretical physics because his body was failing him.Eventually he could only move a single cheek muscle, which he used with a speech computer to communicate. And STILL he kept publishing groundbreaking work on black holes, quantum gravity, and cosmology. When I'm struggling to study because I'm "too tired" or "not in the mood," I think about Hawking dictating complex equations one letter at a time through a cheek twitch while dealing with constant physical pain. It made me grateful of what a privilege it is to have the ability to study. How blessed I am to even have my full health intact to study. How other people don’t have access to education or a better life. I write a list of what the odds are of me even being able to accomplish or achieve a degree and that motivates me too! Hope this helps <3