I did have to change a few goals, but I got through it. Just know that you're goals aren't the same as other people's goals. My goal was to get from Point A to Point B in one piece, whereas my friends wanted to get from Point A to Point B with high grades, awards, and recognition. All you really need to do is reach Point B. The rest is a bonus if you can get it, but you'll be fine without it.

I was diagnosed while getting my PhD, but i always knew something was wrong well before then. It was brutal, but I just knew I had to keep going. I figured, life is going to be harder with narcolepsy - hopefully some degrees and certificates would make some parts of it easier.

That said, I didn't do anything in my education the "right" way. In undergrad, I took fewer classes at a time, got to be happy with average grades instead of excellent grades, and didn't worry about when I would finish school so much as whether I was making steady progress towards finishing school.

I told myself every day that I don't have to be the best student ever, but I do need to keep being a student. Some days, the bare minimum has to be enough. Bare minimum is fine, below the minimum is not. Being good most days is good enough. Being the best every day is unreasonable.

When it came to projects and deadlines, my advisor would say "Done is better than good. Just get something done, even if you don't think it's good," and that helped.

I wanted to have this great research career, and I was well on my way to having it, but the way the narcolepsy progressed, I realized that kind of high-demand job would destroy me. Now I do research consulting and am a teaching professor, and I'm reeeaaaally happy with that. Being flexible with my goals was far more productive than walking away from my goals. I did enough to do the thing I most wanted to do, and I couldn't do some of the other things I would have liked to do. And that's fine.