“Who gives a s---" was my grandfather’s motto, it’s even engraved on his tombstone. Well, mostly, we couldn’t really engrave a profanity, but it worked out because his last name is Eibeschitz. So his gravestone says “Who gives a schitz”. He loved to always play around with me and my siblings and make us smile, or trick us into thinking it wasn’t him who just tapped us on the head it was our grandmother. He served in the Israeli Army and his father worked for the Israeli government. He died on February 29, 2020 in a nursing home. I like to think it was his final joke, dying on a leap year on the one day that only comes around every four years. Growing up with my grandparents was great and enjoyable. My siblings and I went to synagogue with them every Saturday, a way for my parents to get us out of the house and have some time to themselves. My grandmother always packed sweets in her purse for us so we’d behave, that included my grandfather who always found a way to stir up some of his own mischief. Even during Friday night dinners when my dad would tell us we couldn’t have anymore Challah, my grandfather would ask for some and then sneak it to us under the table. Losing him was hard. Since it was during the height of the pandemic, I was stuck at home for school, but that didn’t make it any easier. For a long time I was in shock of what occurred and went about my business. But it hit hard. I can’t even remember if I got time off school, that period of my life was mostly a blur. I do remember enjoying the fact that I was in the comfort of my home, my camera off and my mic muted so no one could hear or see me cry. I cried as I took tests or did assignments, it was hard. But I pushed through and worked hard on my academics because I knew my grandfather hated seeing people cry or do anything other than smile, he loved it when people had a good time. So I pushed through and worked hard on my education, I worked too hard to give it up and I know my grandfather would have felt the same. Even though he died almost four years ago I sometimes still cry about him being gone. He taught me to never let someone else’s opinions affect how I feel with his motto, and I still follow that motto to this day. I also like to look toward the positives of bad situations, keep a smile on like he would. He taught me and my siblings that life didn’t have to be a serious thing. Life could be as fun as you made it, all you had to do was smile.