Baking is what you should do with your life

Yesterday I met with my friend Sophie, she used to intern with me in Amnesty’s office in Tel Aviv.

We have not seen in each other in a year, and she invited me to a concert of oriental klezmer in a cool concert hall of Paris, because she remembered how much fun we had together when we saw Shantel performing in Tel Aviv together.

We had so many things to catch up about, but for some reason, probably because both of us are foodies, we had a long discussion about sweets. Very quickly though, what started as a sweet conversation became a “what should I do with my life” one, probably because both of us are quite lost at the moment.

Sophie is obsessed with baking. She loves it and she’s good at it. And not only because she’s french. Sophie is french, she always lived in Paris where you have patisseries everywhere, but still she never had any experience outside of her own kitchen. She used to think that baking was just for fun. So when she had to decide what she wanted to do with her life, Sophie went to La Sorbonne for a first degree in foreign languages, “Langues Etrangères Appliquées” (LEA).

It was only during her gap year in Tel Aviv that she decided to work in a bakery for the first time. And guess what ? She loved it !

She experienced cultural differences when it comes to food, and sweets more particularly, between Israelis and French, and has a very funny way to talk about it. She got all excited telling me how many things she learned about the new country she was living in and people’s habits, how much she progressed in hebrew just because she had to be able to explain to her super-curious and straight-to-the-point Israeli clients what were the cakes made of, why, how, where, how much of everything was in them. She sometimes had to argue to say that she was right about the names of the cakes and that yes, she knew the difference between a mille-feuilles and an éclair au chocolat. 

At the end of the year, she still decided to go back to France and start masters, because she had no reason not to start a masters. Because here in France, just like in other countries in the world where studies and diploma are more important than passions, aspirations and personal projects, you are worth nothing without a masters. Or at least you that’s what you are told. You are also told that “serious” studies are the only ones able to take you somewhere, and that all the fun things you like in life can be saved for your spare-time. All this baking, painting, dancing, playing music, watching movies, traveling and other so-called cute but useless activities.

So Sophie started a masters in International Communications. And guess what ? She hates it. All she can think about is how bored she is in class, and how much she misses the creativity, the social interactions and the personal satisfaction she used to get from baking and selling mille-feuilles, éclairs au chocolat and other patisseries.

Yes, you are told that the only way is separate coolness from work, because cool things cannot be serious, and after all, you need a serious job, don’t you ? And what happens next ? We’re all graduate, we’re experiencing a harsh economic crisis, and the only way out is : CREATIVITY.

Creativity in your job, creativity in your life, very much necessary these days. And I’m afraid this is the only thing we might have forgotten to learn at school. Oops.Yesterday I met with my friend Sophie, she used to intern with me in Amnesty’s office in Tel Aviv.

We have not seen in each other in a year, and she invited me to a concert of oriental klezmer in a cool concert hall of Paris, because she remembered how much fun we had together when we saw Shantel performing in Tel Aviv together.

We had so many things to catch up about, but for some reason, probably because both of us are foodies, we had a long discussion about sweets. Very quickly though, what started as a sweet conversation became a “what should I do with my life” one, probably because both of us are quite lost at the moment.

Sophie is obsessed with baking. She loves it and she’s good at it. And not only because she’s french. Sophie is french, she always lived in Paris where you have patisseries everywhere, but still she never had any experience outside of her own kitchen. She used to think that baking was just for fun. So when she had to decide what she wanted to do with her life, Sophie went to La Sorbonne for a first degree in foreign languages, “Langues Etrangères Appliquées” (LEA).

It was only during her gap year in Tel Aviv that she decided to work in a bakery for the first time. And guess what ? She loved it !

She experienced cultural differences when it comes to food, and sweets more particularly, between Israelis and French, and has a very funny way to talk about it. She got all excited telling me how many things she learned about the new country she was living in and people’s habits, how much she progressed in hebrew just because she had to be able to explain to her super-curious and straight-to-the-point Israeli clients what were the cakes made of, why, how, where, how much of everything was in them. She sometimes had to argue to say that she was right about the names of the cakes and that yes, she knew the difference between a mille-feuilles and an éclair au chocolat. 

At the end of the year, she still decided to go back to France and start masters, because she had no reason not to start a masters. Because here in France, just like in other countries in the world where studies and diploma are more important than passions, aspirations and personal projects, you are worth nothing without a masters. Or at least you that’s what you are told. You are also told that “serious” studies are the only ones able to take you somewhere, and that all the fun things you like in life can be saved for your spare-time. All this baking, painting, dancing, playing music, watching movies, traveling and other so-called cute but useless activities.

So Sophie started a masters in International Communications. And guess what ? She hates it. All she can think about is how bored she is in class, and how much she misses the creativity, the social interactions and the personal satisfaction she used to get from baking and selling mille-feuilles, éclairs au chocolat and other patisseries.

Yes, you are told that the only way is separate coolness from work, because cool things cannot be serious, and after all, you need a serious job, don’t you ? And what happens next ? We’re all graduate, we’re experiencing a harsh economic crisis, and the only way out is : CREATIVITY.

Creativity in your job, creativity in your life, very much necessary these days. And I’m afraid this is the only thing we might have forgotten to learn at school. Oops.