His group of friends and him enjoyed playing board games, the manufacture of fireworks, and model airplanes and boats. From 1958 and with the help of the mathematics teacher they built a computer from clock parts, an old telephone switchboard and other recycled components. Although at school he was known as "Einstein," Hawking was not successful academically. He began to like scientific subjects and decided to study mathematics at university. Hawking's father told him to study medicine because he was concerned that there were few jobs for mathematics graduates. He wanted Hawking to attend University College, Oxford. It wasn't possible to read mathematics there at the time. Then Hawking decided to study physics and chemistry. Despite his headmaster's advice to wait until the next year, Hawking was awarded a scholarship after taking the examinations. When he went to Oxford University he thought that university was ridiculously easy and got the highest marks in his class. He was doing amazing academically in university but was not doing well health wise and that is when he started getting symptoms of motor neuron disease. Stephen Hawking's childhood was good but as he got older he started getting more symptoms and was diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
Stephen Hawking found out that he was diagnosed with motor neuron disease. Sadly the doctors gave him a life expectancy of two years and then he fell into depression. But his sister's friend really like Hawking and talked to him and helped him through his depression. Over time Hawking also started to like her and they ended up getting engaged. During the week of his engagement he felt really good and felt no symptoms of his disease. Shortly after the engagement the symptoms started to come back quickly. He had difficulty walking without support and his speech was almost unintelligible. After a year or so his disease started getting really bad and doctors said he was putting too much pressure on his body and forcing it to walk too much.