14. Big-Girl Scaries and Soggy Bottoms: How Bake Off Became My Safe Haven For New Beginnings

A love letter from Beatrice Onions to "The Great British Baking Show"

The Great British Baking Show, Mon Amour

Now a weekly favourite, you were once a nightly tonic against the big-girl scaries that come with moving to New York. Having graduated from dorm life at the end of my junior year in college, I had volunteered to spearhead the apartment hunt whilst the other two members of my party phoned in from Australia to select our new diggs for senior year. I was excited. I was ready. I was gonna square this away in a week. But….I was also in the habit of self-assigning rather large tasks when it came to group projects- (I no longer have this issue…. goodbye type A!) From ringing realtors, knocking down doors at 8 am, desperately praying for daybreak in Australia where roomie #2 and #3 were doing there best to flick through photos of fish-eye street-easy tours, pleading with my bank to issue money orders as a non-resident and ultimately convincing an agent to delay showings for 3 hours for me to rummage up a US guarantor- this bloody apartment hunt gave me grey hairs, a cortisol infusion and many-a-sleepless nights.

That’s where you, 'Bake Off' came in.

Something about the homey bakes, sing-songey accents from across my home county, and the hilarious out-takes, over-bakes and soggy bottoms (iykyk) calmed me and provided a safe, quiet island for me to transport to every night. I have never quite escaped reality in this way since. I don’t even know if it’s entirely healthy- to become so dependent on a TV show, but like ice to a burn, you took the temporary (but rather all-consuming) ouch, out of reality. I’m trying to understand why this feels important, four years down the track. I have so many TV shows that I love but loving is easyyyy- my friendship with this particular TV show is more complex. Perhaps, in a world of infinitely new beginnings (how exciting), there is something rather essential about certainty. Or to state the inverse, having nothing certain, and challenging/adapting/restructuring so many things in your life (job, friendships, apartment, etc) actually inhibits the net good. It can be really flipping overwhelming!

I think I’ve found more tangible and meaningful things to keep still whilst I move my living room-of-live around and around. I used to love you because I wanted a huge, multi-season, 60-min-episode distraction. Now I love you because I have a lingering crush on Paul Hollywood and I am fascinated by baking and I am in awe of the animation artist who makes all of those designs of the cakes and- AGH- I love it you because I do. Maybe a movie/tv/book adventure is absolutely essential every now and then but damn- this life is too short to escape. If I want to escape, I stand in front of a mirror, not a screen. Or maybe... they're the same...!

From your doting friend,

Beatrice <33

About Beatrice

Beatrice Onions (she/her) is an award-winning writer, producer and multi-media content creator based in New York City. She works in production for celebrity brands including Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's PAPATUI and JLo's DELOLA and is the recipient of the Penguin Short Story Competition award. Beatrice is a writer for the New York Theatre Guide. She generates content for world-famous brands under the alias Paperback_Pantry and has worked in pre-production and production for Film & TV such as Eternal Return and Theater such as SING STREET and HUGO CABRET. In her spare time, Beatrice enjoys perfecting her bagel order and casually introducing herself as Lorde's best friend - New Zealand really is that small!