Student who served as school mascot for two years takes one last grand bow at her graduation

Graduation day remains etched in our memories forever. It holds memories of years of hard work and lifelong friendships forged during that time. On one such unforgettable graduation day, a student who served as her school mascot for two years made a grand entry while being cheered on by her peers and professors.

In a viral video shared to the r/MadeMeSmile forum on Reddit, the student is seen proudly and enthusiastically running around the venue while adorning the mascot Cocky’s feet.

The video captioned, “School Mascot for Two Years Decides to Wear Cocky Feet for the Graduation, and the University couldn't be more supportive. A UofSC Biomed Engineering Graduate who was school mascot Cocky for Two Years Decides to Walk Across the Stage Wearing Mascot Feet” was posted by u/Knight_TheRider on the platform.

The video has gained over 21k upvotes even before completing 24 hours on the platform. As seen in the video, the moment she appears, the crowd in the hall recognizes the school mascot's feet and cheers the revelation. 

Traditionally, some schools keep the mascot's true identity a secret until the students graduate. The girl named Sarah Sylvester is a biomedical engineering student at the University of South Carolina and served as the school's mascot, "Cocky," for two years, according to a viral tweet posted by Joe Pompliano.

As per the tradition at USC, Sylvester cherishes her last day as the mascot by running across the assembly hall and revealing her identity. She's clapping hands, waving at her fellow graduating students and sharing a great moment with the audience seated in the hall. Later in the video, she performs the signature dance one last time as her name gets announced.

The 1-minute and 14 seconds long video received many comments. u/Hey_Its_Crosby wrote, “She clearly loved being Cocky. I hope she can find something new to bring her this much joy after graduation.” Many others echoed the comment and said they find it a bit “addictive” to watch.

Meanwhile, another user, u/landon_masters, commented: “The highest completed level of education that I completed was high school, and it was widely known who are mascot was all the time; is the guarded secret a college/uni tradition or did we just miss the mark in high school. I’ve never seen a video like this but it’s really awesome and heartwarming!”

Others shared their thoughts on the fun of being a mascot for their educational institutions, u/Ohpsmokeshow, wrote in the thread, “Being a college mascot was the sh*t. You get free merch and old grads will slip you money sometimes. Super cool experience well worth the almost heat strokes.” After looking at the crowd cheering in the video, we couldn’t agree more.