Last month, the deaths of Stan Lee and Stephen Hillenburg broke the hearts of millions of kids and adults alike around the world. The cameos performed by Lee were some of his most iconic appearances in Marvel, and the many episodes and movies of Spongebob Squarepants were the reason why children and most adults woke up on Saturday mornings.

When the news of Stan Lee passing away was first published, people were shocked. In the first hour of people finding out, the school was filled with talk on what they thought about Stan Lee’s passing and what he left behind. Junior Luis Sanchez, a really big fan of Spider-man, had some very meaningful and personal feelings about Lee’s death.

“The death of Stan Lee surprised me, to be completely honest,” Sanchez said. “It was truly saddening that someone so impactful and important can be taken away from us at moment’s notice. Just seeing him in all the movies so energetic and funny always made the movies great.”

About two weeks later, the world was shocked again as another iconic creator passed away. Stephen Hillenburg passed away from ALS at the age of 57. When headlines filled the story titles and websites, many people, such as junior Daniel Guijarro, had a very sad reaction to the news.

“It gave me a lot of joy to laugh at what ever creative and funny scenarios that the writers of the show could come up with,” Guijarro said. “His death was really sad because he not only made my childhood better but millions of other peoples’ childhoods better.”

Although the creators of these amazing shows and movies aren’t with us anymore, their creations still draw the love of many people and make them laugh and smile and inspire them to be a greater person.

“Marvel gave me a reason to watch movies and it made me want to become a better person that could help others just like any other superhero,” Sanchez said. “I love the movies because they always show how vulnerable heroes can really be and that’s what always sticks out, the fact that they can get back up and keep going. I find that really inspirational.”