How would you describe the symbolism Pausch loved when a Carnegie Mellon student selected one of his particular stuffed animals?

Over the years, Randy's amassed a large collection of stuffed animals that he's won at fairgrounds. This hobby of his all started when he was young and dreamed of being the cool guy at the fairground carrying around a large stuffed animal which he could use to woo girls. Since then, Randy has won dozens and dozens of stuffed animals, showing us once again that, even in the case of something relatively trivial, Randy believes that the prize is truly worth it if you put in the effort.
As Randy's now coming to the end of his life, he's decided that he's going to give away his stuffed toy collection. He figures that this is the best thing to do as his wife, Jai, won't have any use for it when he's gone. At the last lecture, Randy invites students in the audience to come up and take a stuffed animal for themselves. One of the students takes an elephant. Later on, Randy finds out that the student, like himself, has cancer.
This is very encouraging for Randy, as it shows that his positive message of achieving what you want through hard work and perseverance can be passed on to others in a similar situation to himself. It's one thing to get the word out to those who are in good health, with the rest of their lives to look forward to. But it's a different matter entirely to encourage someone else with cancer to have the same positive outlook on life.