You can find him any day of the week flitting from table to table in the dining halls, taking the time to say hello to someone he barely knows, and then sitting with a friend just to listen.
He’ll never let you down, and he’ll never make you feel bad about yourself.
Jon Pol, a sophomore creative writing major with a minor in cognitive science, is the best kind of friend – to everyone.
He wasn’t always so friendly – Pol admits he used to be very shy, which is why he chose creative writing as a major.
“I love writing,” he says. “It’s the best way to express myself. I didn’t have a lot of friends and I was an only child so it was the best way to get myself out.”
Pol has certainly gotten himself out. Everyone seems to know him, and his generous smile pulls you in even if you’ve never met him before.
“Before I came here, I wasn’t very social, but I decided I had to turn that around,” says Pol. “It’s always just fun to be in a crowd and have someone say ‘that’s Jon Pol!’”
In addition to his extremely friendly demeanor, Pol is also probably the most positive person you’ll ever meet.
His father, Pol says, was a great man, but was also “a very glass-empty kind of guy. It almost led into a break up in the family.”
This drove Pol to try a more positive way of thinking.
“There’s so much bad going on that you just need to look at the bright side of things. Everything bad always has a good side to it,” he says.
“I just kind of wake up, realize I am who I am, and it’s gonna be a good day. Every day is a new little adventure. Even if yesterday was bad, today is a new slate.”
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Oswego chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.