Ever since I was a child
I have been staring up at
the stars of the universe
and I have been staring at
the wonders of the world
and asking questions about the origins
of everything and everyone…
ever since I was a child
I have been enthralled by science
and the many scientific discoveries
that have been made over the centuries…
ever since I was a child
I have been interested in learning more about
physics, chemistry, biology,
and how and why things in nature
work the way that they do on our planet
and elsewhere in the cosmos;
and I will never forget learning about
who scientists were and what they
were famous for: scientists like
Sir Isaac Newton, Marie Curie,
Galileo Galilei, Albert Einstein –
and E = mc2 was the first
and is still the only scientific equation
that I can effortlessly recite from memory;
however, I must admit that it wasn’t until
I became more familiar with the renowned
theoretical physicist and cosmologist
Stephen Hawking – his story, and his pursuit
of a Theory of Everything –
that I became enthralled by the concept
that science and discovery was something
that could be achieved by anybody
with the gift of seeing beyond their periphery.

Stephen Hawking was, and still is,
in my opinion, one of the greatest minds
there has ever been…
Stephen Hawking defied the odds of life
at any and every opportunity
and he never allowed the fact that for
that majority of his adult life
his body was confined to a wheelchair
because he had Motor Neuron Disease
to stop him from becoming famous,
inspirational, and world renowned
because of the way that he was able
to think about and interpret the hidden
secrets of the origin and the nature of the universe.

For most of his life Stephen Hawking
was only able to communicate with the aid
of a computer generated voice –
that over time became just as synonymous
with him as his great intelligence did –
and nevertheless he was able to
share so many theories and insights
into the inner-workings of reality
and he eventually ascended to
become the Lucasian Professor of
Mathematics at the University of Cambridge
for thirty years, and in that time
he published books, he gave inspirational speeches,
and he showed the world that anybody
could achieve anything simply through
using the power of their own mind –
and, in my opinion, that is why
there will never be anyone
who embodies who a person can be
and what they can do if they choose to
not give up, to keep fighting, to keep living,
and to keep considering new ways
of seeing things from different perspectives,
than the personification of hope
who will never be forgotten:
the one and the only
Professor Stephen Hawking.