This past Thursday, I experienced my fifteen minutes of UCF fame. No, I didn’t stare into the camera in front of a stadium full of football fans. No, I didn’t single-handedly donate my entire life savings to Knight-Thon. No, I didn’t do anything monumentally awesome. So maybe I’m stretching the truth just a tad…but I was roasted on Twitter by a UCF celebrity, and to me, that’s kind of the same thing.
For those of you who haven’t stayed up to date with UCF’s newest mascots, Knightro is out and Anthony (aka The Staring Game Champion) and UCF Knugget are in. As of the beginning of this undefeated football season, UCF welcomed some new faces to campus to keep our school spirit brighter than ever. One of which is my new favorite obsession: a mini horse named Knugget.
First of all, Knugget is the most adorable mini horse to ever exist. He made his first appearance at a recent UCF home game, and since then has grown his popularity by posting adorable pictures on his Twitter account.
His first tweet introducing himself to the world featured a video of him marching to victory with the caption “It me. Knugget. #ChargeOn.” As an enthusiast of “knight” puns and unnecessarily using the silent “k,” it immediately caught my eye. I quickly wanted to share my love for our cute new mascot by quote-tweeting his latest selfie with “we have a pony. named nugget. WITH A ‘K.’ hell ya!!” so that everyone knew how excited I was for UCF’s newest VIP.
I thought that sharing my support would be a great way to kiss up to Knugget, but I was oh so very wrong. After seeing my mentions blow up, I went to see what was happening. To my dismay, Knugget wasn’t the happiest horse in the stable. My heart dropped as I saw his response to my tweet: “I am a mini horse and I will not be disrespected.” How could I be so stupid? How did I miss this important detail and end up hurting the ones I loved the most in the process? I quickly did what anyone begging for forgiveness would do: I tweeted him back.
“Love you just the same {yellow heart emoji},” I replied. Hours passed, which turned into days, and I still haven’t gotten as much as a favorite back on that tweet. The damage was done, and Knugget may never forgive me.
Thanks to Knugget pointing out my ignorance, I was able to learn a new fact about an animal I clearly did not know much about. But most importantly, I learned a lesson about being respectful on the internet. Although my bond with Knugget may never be strong again, I would like to thank him for interacting with me, a mere peasant, and making my day a little bit brighter.
All images provided by author.