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Every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday — rain, shine or snow — a Syracuse University senior sits in a folding lawn chair in the same spot on the Shaw Quadrangle. For an hour or two, he holds up a whiteboard with a brief positive message. He rarely misses a day.

Passersby usually don’t spare him more than a brief glance, smile or sometimes a wave. But he doesn’t mind if people don’t react, he said. He knows he’s doing the right thing, and has been doing it since freshman year.

Sign Guy, who studies neuroscience and data analytics, asked to be anonymous in this story. He believes the message is bigger than himself.

“Smile, giggle, laugh, repeat”

The idea to sit outside with a sign, and one of Sign Guy’s favorite messages, “Smile, giggle, laugh, repeat,” came from his grandfather.

For about two decades, Sign Guy’s grandfather sat at a roundabout in their small town in Vermont with his own sign, Sign Guy said. It began as a political protest to the United States’ invasion of Iraq in 2003.

As the Gulf War waned, his grandfather began to shift toward signs with more general messages of “peace, love and joy.” His grandfather moved to Oregon, and Sign Guy started college at SU.

Sign Guy said he knew he wanted to continue his grandfather’s tradition starting on his first day of college. He said telling his grandfather he planned to hold signs at SU was an emotional moment that strengthened their close childhood connection.

“Someone had to hold it down for the East Coast,” Sign Guy said.

Since then, Sign Guy has had a few chances to sit with his grandfather — who he described as a second parent — at that roundabout, displaying a sign together.

When Sign Guy started getting attention from SU students who wanted to feature him in class projects, he consulted his grandfather for advice.

“It’s about the message and the sign and the spreading of that message,” Sign Guy said. “In conversation with him, he’s like, ‘Just make sure you’re focusing on spreading the message. That’s what it’s about. It’s not about you.’”

“You matter”

Sign Guy emphasizes that anyone can do what he’s doing — that’s the point, he said. All he does is sit with a sign with a sentence like, “You matter.” It’s not about him, and he doesn’t want his own imperfections to take away from the meaning of the sign, he said.

It’s the message of “peace, love and joy” that has the real impact, he said.

“What I hope people get from it is that a person can spend the time to do this and can be dedicated to doing this, not a specific person, just that anyone can do it,” Sign Guy said. “All you need is a whiteboard and a chair and markers and you can go out.”

As the weather gets colder, Sign Guy sits for an hour or more in freezing temperatures. He said he sees enough good in the world to make the commitment to go out every day, and hopes that inspires others.

But he’s prepared for the weather. Sign Guy wears tights under fleece-lined cargo pants with heavy-duty boots. He hopes people don’t notice that he wears the same pants almost every time. Sometimes he wears a ski mask, which he said feels silly.

Sign Guy holds his positive signs even after the sun has set. His messages, like “I love your smile” try to bring peace, joy and love to the campus community. Leonardo Eriman | Photo Editor

“You’re stronger than you know”

Sign Guy said his positive messages are a response to fear mongering and anxiety he sees in his generation, and especially on social media. He said he’s noticed an existential sense of dread and uncertainty, especially on college campuses.

“In the past couple generations, it’s always felt like they are looking forward to the future because it’s going to be better,” Sign Guy said. “And now we are kind of at this point where that sense of security isn’t really there. And I think that really takes a toll.”

The goal is to create one positive thing a day for people to see, Sign Guy said. He hopes it can put a smile on people’s faces, or just be a reminder that there’s good in the world. It’s always good to have the words “love” and “smile” in big letters, he said.

Sign Guy said his friends often come by and chat with him while he holds his sign. His close friend, senior Omi Wolfe, said even if she doesn’t have time to stop by, just knowing he’s out on the Quad makes her feel good.

“This one time I saw him from across the Quad and I started waving my hands so he would see me,” Wolfe said. “I didn’t really go up to him, but just knowing that he was there, and that he had something positive on his sign, uplifted my spirit.”

Sign Guy was inspired by his grandfather to continue his tradition. His grandfather held his own signs for nearly two decades in their small town in Vermont. Leonardo Eriman | Photo Editor

“Bring a smile to class today”

The first time Sign Guy decided to sit outside with his sign, his very first day of college classes, he said he “freaked out.” As a freshman, he said he was worried about what people would think and if he could actually make a difference.

His grandfather had experienced intense negative reactions to his anti-war signs, and Sign Guy said he was scared by that too. He called his brother for support.

“He kind of calmed me down and set me straight,” Sign Guy said. “It was like, ‘You got this, this is something you want to do. Who cares what anyone else thinks? You know this is the right thing to do. Go do it.’ And that got me in the right mindset.”

The first few people who walked past gave confused glances, he said. Then, someone broke into a beaming smile. After that, he said he was fully confident in what he was doing.

On the first day of every semester since then, Sign Guy has used the sign “Bring a smile to class today.” He said he tries to decide on signs based on the knowledge that other people are probably going through the same things he is.

If he’s stressed about a test, he knows other people probably are too. For midterms and finals season, he uses signs with messages like “Keep going.” He gathers ideas from classes, social media, friends and his grandfather.

He said the biggest challenge is often getting phrases down to his five-to-seven word limit. Sign Guy said the concise messages are important, especially for someone like a cyclist who rode past and waved on Tuesday. People won’t stop to read a paragraph, he said.

Sophia Burke | Digital Design Director

“Your smile is beautiful”

Sign Guy has an almost scientific knowledge of his spot on the Quad, built from his hours and hours of observation. At the beginning of his Tuesday shift, the sidewalks are usually empty, he said. As classes get out, he watches the Quad fill up.

Signs with more substance like, “You’re stronger than you know,” tend not to get as many reactions as lighthearted signs like, “Your smile is beautiful,” he said. But, the reactions they do get are more meaningful.

The signs are a smile-driven operation. Sign Guy said his favorite passerbys are those who don’t react at first. As they walk away, he sees them fighting a smile. “Gotcha,” he thinks. Those interactions are some of the best because they’re really changing how people think, he said.

In the early years of his sign-holding career, Sign Guy said he used to fixate on the amount of smiles he got in a day. If he didn’t get enough, he didn’t feel successful.

Now, he said he doesn’t need to get a certain number to feel like he’s doing the right thing.

“I feel like I see him a lot more pensive now,” Wolfe said. “He doesn’t feel the need to talk to people going by. He fully makes it about the sign and how it’s able to impact others, not about him and his sign.”

Sign Guy always tries to look inviting and keep a smile on his face, he said. Despite that, he still notices that people hold back from interacting with him or walk past looking at their phones. Even when he’s visited different cities and sat with a sign there, the same unwritten rules of not reaching out to strangers apply, he said.

The first 15 people who walk by him on the Quad might not wave or react, he said. But as one person does, the likelihood that more will do the same jumps, he said. Sign Guy said he’s learned how big of an impact the first person to challenge the status quo has.

Sign Guy sits outside with his sign for hours, in rain, snow and shine. He doesn’t even mind freezing winter temperatures Lola Jeanne Carpio | Contributing Photographer

“Don’t let yesterday’s rain wash away today’s smile”

The day after it rains at SU, Sign Guy likes to hold the sign: “Don’t let yesterday’s rain wash away today’s smile.” It’s a way to remind people not to let their past take them out of the present moment, he said.

Sign Guy said the most important time for him to go out with his sign was when he was going through a breakup. Sign Guy said he sat on the Quad crying while holding a sign that says, “Your smile is beautiful.” That kind of day reminds him of why he does this.

“When you get tested is when it’s more important to prove to yourself that you can go do these things,” Sign Guy said. “If you know it’s the right thing to do, you should do it, regardless of how you’re feeling.”

Toward the end of Sign Guy’s Tuesday hour, SU graduate student Joel Barnes stopped to offer him a slice of pizza. Barnes sees Sign Guy at least once a week, and said the signs are a “small encouragement.”

Sign Guy loves those spontaneous moments, like watching people play frisbee on the Quad or overhearing conversations about the new Taylor Swift album.

Twice, someone has approached him and shared that they were having a bad day and needed to see his message. Sign Guy calls that a genuine moment of humanity.

“The interactions that I have with people reminded me, especially going through that breakup, that life goes on, and I still have value to give the world, and I’m still out here doing this good thing that I know is good,” Sign Guy said. “I still can exist. The whole world isn’t ending, just one aspect of my life.”

“World peace is possible, one person at a time”

Sign Guy said that though the peace, love and joy message is important, he sometimes feels like a “coward” for not displaying political messages like his grandfather. If he were to include political messaging, he said he would focus on human rights issues, which he said have become unnecessarily political.

Sign Guy said he’s thought about expanding his message through a social media page or a new form of social media that promotes positivity through its algorithm, an idea inspired by his data analytics and neuroscience studies.

Though Sign Guy is a senior, he’s staying at SU for another two years to finish his masters degree. Recently, someone approached him and asked him if he had to rent the space to sit there. That was a meaningful moment, he said. He gave someone an idea to replicate his positivity. He said every smile or “nice to see you” means a lot.

Sign Guy said the signs are where he gets his sense of purpose from. He said he hopes to grow his signs into something that impacts people worldwide, though he’s not completely sure what that will look like yet.

“Obviously the end goal is to save the world, right?” he said. “But this is not going to save the world. But this is all I know how to do now. So that’s what I’m doing.”

Published on November 19, 2025 at 11:59 pm
Contact Charlotte: cprice04@syr.edu