"The First Day of the Rest of My Life": Having oneself is very important for a person

Have you ever felt that your life is boring?

On weekdays, I devote myself to work. For the sake of work, I become the person I least want to be. On my days off, I lie in bed at home for two days.

When I was in my twenties, I was urged by my parents to go on a blind date, then get married, buy a house and settle down, have children, raise the children to adulthood, and then increasingly forget about who I wanted to be in the past. You can see the end of life at a glance, as if you have seen all of life.

Life is so difficult, how can we escape from this life that we can see through at a glance?

"The First Day of the Rest of My Life" may give you some inspiration.

It was written by the French writer Virginie Grimaldi. It has not only been a best-seller in France for four consecutive years, but also won the Readers’ Choice Award from tens of millions of readers across France.

The book tells the story of a group of people of different ages who have never met each other, but are also trapped in real life, and find their original selves through "traveling around the world alone".

They have different experiences and personalities, but they all gained unexpected things through this trip. Of course, they all successfully found their past selves.

Since you are unhappy, why not ask yourself what kind of life you really want. If you don’t have the answer yet, you might as well read their stories.

Her name is Mary and she is a forty-year-old housewife. After marrying her husband in her twenties, she devoted all her passion to life: cooking, cleaning, having her husband at his call, and raising children... Day after day, year after year, she dedicated everything to her family, but... Only lost myself.

Her husband is a chauvinist man who spends time with women outside, and increasingly ignores her. Even the twin daughters feel that their mother should live a life that truly belongs to her.

Finally, on her husband's 40th birthday, she made up her mind to leave and embarked on a cruise around the world alone, hoping to escape from the life she saw and give herself a chance to be reborn.

During this trip, she broke through many firsts: the first time she glided. Although she was extremely scared, the moment she flew into the blue sky, she remembered the envy of freedom with her daughters. The flying eagle; the first time diving, relaxing in the underwater world; the first time swimming with dolphins, reminding me of the little girl who desperately collected dolphin pictures when she was a child; the first time swimming in the high-rise outdoor swimming pool of Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Overlooking the entire beautiful scenery of Singapore...

When she was a child, Mary loved to travel and collect the beautiful scenery of every country. However, after she got married, her husband was chauvinistic and refused to admit his phobia of airplanes. He also refused to travel many times. This It made her forget her dreams and love, and slowly lost herself in life.

During these three months of travel, she found herself again.

Her name is Anna, 62 years old. Her partner Dominic's company is threatened by a competing company. He works overtime day and night, which makes Anna feel lonely and thinks that she is no longer the most important.

They had a conflict, and Anna almost did "the biggest stupid thing so far", causing Dominic to leave and never be contacted again.

Anna and her partner Dominic met in their twenties and have been in love with each other for more than 40 years. They do not want children or get married. This is the first time a conflict broke out. Anna was recommended by a neighbor and angrily boarded the board. A cruise around the world.

However, she missed Dominic extremely. She called and sent text messages every day, but there was no reply. At Mary's suggestion, she would write a postcard to Dominic wherever she went, each with a letter, and finally connected together, it was the word for marriage proposal.

When the cruise ship arrived in Thailand, Dominic showed up. He had booked a flight early and was waiting for Anna. He said that when he was on the phone with an old client in the United States, he learned that the other party had just been in a car accident. Lost his wife.

The client confided to him that he had wasted a lot of time, time that he could have spent with his wife, but he had used it for other things, because he never realized that the story was really true. It will come to an abrupt end one day.

At the end of the cruise story, Anna and Dominic got married, and Marie, Camille and the doll Maomao who accompanied Anna through her lonely days were the witnesses.

Anna thought she would never see Dominic again, but at the end of the story, they promised to accompany each other until the last moment of their lives. She understands what longing is, and how painful it is to never be able to hug her lover again. She also understands that happiness is hidden in the gaps of daily life.

Her name is Camille, she is 25 years old. She used to be a very funny, lively, but lonely fat person. In school, she made her first boyfriend, but after three years of dating, she found out why he kept it secret. He always disliked her for being fat.

Camille went for surgery, including gastric resection, liposuction, body shaping, etc. Although she lost weight, these left ugly scars on her belly.

She fell in love with a colleague in the new company, but her previous experience made her very inferior in love, so she embarked on this trip, hoping to conquer a man wherever she went. At the end of the journey, she will have the courage to go back and confess to her colleague.

However, the story cannot be smooth sailing and flat. Not long after she boarded the cruise ship, she was fired because she broke work rules and caused trouble to the company. The dismissal call was made personally by the colleague she liked.

Although she lost her final goal, Camille still did not give up her plan of conquest until she met William in Auckland. She never forgot him, and so did William.

William could not travel with Camille due to work reasons. Camille made a bold decision, giving up the conquest plan, giving up the journey that was almost at the end, and deleting all the men he had conquered. Only one William remains.

She packed all her luggage, bought a plane ticket for the day, got off the ship early, and ran to William. Finally, at Anna's wedding, Camille served as a witness while carrying the baby she once hated. When her eyes turned, William was also filled with joy from a distance.

William still doesn’t understand French well, but so what? After all, happiness is a universal language.

If you meet love, just love and chase it boldly, just like Malena (another tourist on the boat, who met another love in her 80s) said:

These are just a few typical characters in the book, but of course the content is not limited to these. What are the specific stories of these people? How are they intertwined? You also need to dig it out from the book yourself.

Just like the story in this book tells, every life will experience highs and lows. Even in the corners of life where there is no retreat, there is always a power that can take you through the ups and downs of life. In the dark moment, break out of the cocoon and be reborn.

Everyone has their own predicament. If you are confused about your current life, or want to know more about how to live life, you may wish to open this book, follow the author's footsteps, and explore together. I hope You can find ways to heal yourself from their journey, regain yourself, and get back to the little boy or girl you were before.