Last fall, I was presented with an opportunity to live out a life-long dream of mine: to dress up in a mascot suit and do mascot things. For the sake of preserving said mascot’s secret identity, I won’t say exactly which organization I have been mascotting for, but I will hint that it would surprise literally nobody.
Since that time, I’ve continued to don the costume for numerous different events: sports matches, fundraisers, meet & greets, etc. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’ve learned from observing other mascots that I’ve got a lot of room for improvement. Even behind the mask, I’ve had a somewhat reserved personality. I wave and pose and sometimes even dance a bit, but I don’t think that’s really enough. There are antics to be had! Being animated and outgoing is the core purpose of mascot!
Another thing I’ve learned is that I’m woefully out of touch with today’s youth. This is no surprise, but still makes me a little sad. This mostly comes in the form of me not knowing any Fortnite dances, thus disappointing many teenagers who shout indecipherable requests at me. I like the little kids who run up to give me hugs and high-fives, though. One kid even told me that he sees me in commercials all the time, which made me happy, because I knew that at least one kid out there actually watches TV instead of just YouTube.
I’ve also been doing this pro-bono, giving up my precious, precious time for no material or financial gain. I was given a gift card once, but I certainly wasn’t expecting it and have never asked about being compensated. I like being able to consider this as volunteering. It’s not really a “for the good of the community” kind of volunteering, so I’m not sure if it would make a good bullet point on a resume, but it’s still something I can be proud of myself for doing.
I guess there isn’t too much else to say on the subject. Even everything I’ve typed up so far doesn’t really need to be said, but I figure it’s an interesting little footnote to my life. And, I’ve got this blog… so I might as well make use of it. If nothing else, it may help to bore any would-be cyber-stalkers away.