"I never really grew out of my love for storytelling- I grew into it. "
I think the story behind Winnie is long overdue. He was not always the watermelon-eating-pup we all know and love today. I couldn't be more excited to share why this curled up weiner dog is the trusty mascot for Fresh Fruit- and more importantly, my life.
My imagination was my greatest superpower and most used vehicle, taking me to the best of places. A child, I would write stories, draw pictures and hope for a life much different than the one I'm living now- A life underwater as a mermaid, on the boardwalk with a shop of curiosities, in the forest mountains catching fairies, as a talking dog whose owner gave her pizza instead...
But at one point in my young life, I had hung up my sea-sprayed coat and fallen away from these fantastic worlds I had created and into the mundane reality of everyday life. The saddest part of it all was that I didn't even realize I had. My life had become incredibly lack-luster and so unknowingly bland. From late primary to late high school, I was on autopilot: wake up, eat, school, eat, sleep, repeat. I was starving for creativity and completely full on reality.
When I was in high school, I decided to take school very seriously. Now school was not easy for me at all, but I wanted to get as much done in high school as I could so that I could start living my life immediately after graduation. I wanted to be a journalist in NYC. That had been the goal since middle school. So naturally, I set things in motion for me to better achieve that goal, taking courses heavy in writing and social studies. I was loving my classes and work load so much that my Senior year consisted of all writing and social studies classes (and the one math credit I needed to graduate).
The issue was that I had filled my first three years of school with the credits I needed to graduate, that my Senior year had two holes in it. I filled one of those holes with a study hall and the other with an independent study in Art. As you've already read, I was a very creative child and thought it would be an "easy A" class to help bring up my PPA.
On the first day of my independent study I sat at my lab bench for 82 minutes staring at a blank paper with a quill in hand and ink in front of me. I was at a complete loss for what to do, so I did nothing. The next day, the same. And again and again and again and again. A few weeks in, I sat down at my lab bench and focused hard on the blank paper convinced I would create something. I began to develop a headache and my teacher told me I was putting to much pressure on myself and to put my head down for a while. I rested my head on my lab bench and dozed off. When I came to, I did so with Winnie in mind.
In that daze, I found myself next to a lighthouse on the edge of the water waving to a mermaid, in a curiosity shop shaking hands with the cute little owner, on a hammock in the forest mountains watching my daughter catch fireflies with my husband, at the writing desk in my NYC studio apartment eating pepperoni pizza with my wiener dog.
I never really grew out of my love for storytelling- I grew into it. It was at a time in my life when I thought reality was lonely that I recognized the fantastic places I dreamed of and hoped for as reality.
Winnie the Weenie kindly and ever-so-gently rekindled my creativity and imagination. It is because of him that Fresh Fruit is what it is and all it could be. Without Winnie, I would not be turning my passion into my career and my dreams into a reality.
Peace and Love,
Rachel "Ruby" at Fresh Fruit
I still have the original print of Winnie & he goes with me wherever the Lord leads.
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