For a long time, my life seemed to be about to start, but there were always some obstacles, some things had to be solved first, some work had to be done, time seemed to be insufficient, there was a debt to be paid, and then life would begin, and finally, I finally understood that these obstacles were my life. —Afred de Sousa
This passage seems to write about the life of many of us, we always want to rest after doing these jobs, wait for money to travel, and wait for our children to go to school to enjoy their lives.
We've been waiting for this day, for the day when our lives really begin, but that day seems to be too late to come, and there are always some accidents that stand in the way.
Work can never be done, money is never enough, and children cannot relax for a moment since they are born.
If you wait and wait, you may never be able to have your own life for the rest of your life. In fact, every day we live is the first day of the rest of our lives, and every day we should live our own lives, not for others.
Like Mary, the heroine of the book "The First Day of the Rest of My Life", she lived for her husband and daughter until she was forty years old, and after forty she finally gave up everything and lived for herself.
The First Day of the Rest of My Life, the debut novel of French writer Vergini Grimalty, has been on the best-seller list for four consecutive years since its publication and has been unanimously recognized by tens of millions of readers.
In fact, it is not because the plot of the story is so attractive, but because it focuses on the lives of most ordinary people, allowing them to see the difficulties of their own lives and get comfort from it.
Mary: An outcast housewife
The protagonist of the book is named Mary, who met her own Rudolph while in school, and because of an unexpected pregnancy, she had to drop out of school to become a housewife.
As a housewife for more than ten years, she took good care of her children every day, cleaned up her home spotlessly, and changed her methods to make various delicacies to please her husband, but in exchange for her husband's increasing estrangement.
A few months ago, her husband suddenly told her that he had had enough of his current life and felt that he was only forty years old but he was living like an old man.
Mary couldn't figure it out, obviously he would rather watch TV than talk to himself; obviously he insisted on giving up his studies to become a housewife; he himself never had time to go out with himself, how now it was his own fault!
He didn't even want to hide it; at home he would rather watch TV than look at his wife more; even if mary prepared carefully for every birthday, in exchange for it was nothing more than disgust and boredom.
Mary thought about it for a long time and then decided to leave, and her departure was not a gamble, but a deliberate decision.
For the first half of her life, she lived for others, centered on the will of others, circling around others, and after the age of forty, she was going to live for herself.
On her husband Rudolph's birthday, Mary still prepared a birthday party for her husband as in previous years, but unlike in previous years, she herself did not attend this time.
She gave her husband an even bigger surprise by leaving a note "I'm gone, Happy Birthday!" And then disappeared from his life.
Mary had given herself a three-month cruise around the world, a dream she had had since she was young, and for so many years, because her husband didn't like it, she had been shelved, and this time, she could finally set off.
In fact, Mary's life is not the epitome of many housewives, before becoming a housewife, they also talked passionately about their dreams in the course, and they also had a good time in the workplace.
In order to let her husbands have no worries and accompany their children to grow up, they quietly hid their dreams, turning around the stove every day, reluctant to buy skin care products for themselves.
But when one day, their faces are old and their bodies are out of shape, in exchange for boundless disgust.
Anna: The old lady who lost her love
Anna was the first friend Mary met on her travels. Anna is sixty years old, and the reason she went out on a trip was because she had a fight with her partner Dominic and felt that the two of them could not go on.
Anna has been with Dominic since she was in her twenties, two people who advocate freedom, no license, no wedding, no children, and have always lived together as a cohabiting partner.
But lately she found that the distance between the two people was getting farther and farther apart, and she couldn't understand each other more and more, and finally after an argument, Dominique moved out of the apartment they shared and never came back.
It was only then that Anna realized that she didn't even have a reason to go to each other, that she wasn't Dominic's wife, that she didn't have a common child, and that the two had nothing to do with each other after they broke up.
After all these years, Anna had become accustomed to Dominic's presence, and she thought that the two of them would continue to the end of their lives like this. But at the age of sixty, she was abandoned halfway through, and she had to start learning to live alone.
CAMILLE: Fat girl without self-confidence
Camille was the second companion Mary met on her journey, and unlike Anna and Mary, she was only twenty-five years old and unmarried.
In the past, Camille, with a weight of two hundred pounds, was so fat that no one wanted to be friends with her, no one liked her, and she was often the object of ridicule by her classmates and people around her.
The only boyfriend he has ever made, but accidentally overheard what he said to his friend, it turned out that the other party did not really like himself, just playing.
Camille is very sad and she wants to change herself and prove her charm.
So she saved money to go to liposuction for surgery, and finally dropped from two hundred pounds to 90 pounds, but she was still not confident.
This trip, she is to find the lost confidence, she set herself the goal of this journey to win 80 men, as a way to prove her charm.
With different moods and purposes, they embarked on the same cruise ship, starting this journey around the world and finding themselves.
She didn't care what happened next. She had been on a familiar path, where she knew every little grass, every stone, and the end, Now she has chosen another desolate and unfamiliar path. She may stumble, occasionally slip, and surely fall into a few traps. Nothing can be foreseen. But she will meet it happily, strongly, and hopefully.
In fact, Mary had been looking forward to this trip for more than ten years, but every year, the only vacation, her husband had to take the whole family to her brother's house for a vacation, no matter how Much Mary pleaded, he refused to take Mary to travel.
In the past ten years, she has collected DVDs about travel from all over the world, and when she collected them, she did not expect to go to them one day, she thought that she would not be able to go to those places in her lifetime, and she could only live on the DVD.
Unexpectedly, when she was forty years old, this dream came true, and she embarked on the long-desired cruise ship and embarked on a trip that was only her own.
Anna and Camille also have their own thoughts, Anna is to get rid of the past, to get rid of the pain of losing her boyfriend, and Camille is to prove her charm on this journey and find her lost confidence.
The three of them quickly became friends, eating together, going underwater diving together, going to the helicopter together, exploring the food and beauty of the place, just don't be too hilarious.
Of course, there were troubles during the journey, and Mary received a letter from her husband Rudolph accusing her, and at first she hoped that her husband would recognize her mistake and then pray that she would return.
But when she saw the letter, she finally understood that Rudolph's heart was always only himself, and even the apology letter he wrote was only describing his feelings, and never cared about Mary's situation, which made Mary completely dead.
Anna also hoped that Dominique could find out that she could not live without herself, and begged her to go back. But the truth is completely opposite, and the postcards she sent to Dominic are all in the sea.
Camille thought that she had found true love in the middle of the journey, but she did not expect that the other party still just used herself and put all her deeds in the magazine, making her an inappropriate woman.
But it doesn't matter, these are all in the past, and they are not here to find their own troubles, but to say goodbye to the past and find themselves.
They wrote down what they needed to say goodbye in a drift bottle at the beach, and everyone said goodbye to the troubles of their past lives and let those troubles drift away with the sea:
What Mary said goodbye to: Rudolph's purring, pairs of clothes and socks to wash, insomnia, Rudolph's duties, loneliness
Anna said goodbye to the things: the silence in the apartment, the endless waiting, the cold bed, the loneliness
Camille said goodbye to the things: extra stress at work, ridicule from others, nightmares about weight, loneliness
Say goodbye, those days that are always around others, the self that lives in the expectations of others, and then talk about things later, and enjoy the beautiful travel of the moment first.
Mary cut a new hairstyle and changed back to the short hair she liked as a teenager, and finally didn't care whether Rudolph liked it or not, she liked it enough.
Mary found that when she finally became herself, life was smiling at her, and everything around her became beautiful.
She meets a new love, Leuk, someone who can understand herself, appreciate herself, care about her feelings, and still be able to talk.
The handmade fabrics she has been using to pass the time have also been welcomed by many people, and they have suddenly become blockbusters and successfully solved their own economic problems.
Anna and Camille are also trying to say goodbye to the past, no matter how it ends, when bravely taking the first step, the road ahead is not so difficult
Anna didn't expect Dominic to come looking for her. And proposed to her. It turns out that letting go properly can lead to longer together.
Before going out on the trip, Anna looked at Dominic too tightly, putting too much pressure on him and making him feel suffocated. During this time, the two people have thought clearly, they can't do without each other, and they have found a way to get along that suits them.
Camille also found her true Prince Charming William at the end of her trip, and she went to Oakland to start a new life with William.
When Mary returned, the first thing she did was to find an apartment of her own, to decorate it the way she liked, to make the house colorful, and not to care about Rudolph's opinion.
She also drinks hot cocoa, eats round bread, and cooks without racking her brains; she is the sole owner of the TV remote control, watching whatever program she wants; she can sleep horizontally at home, and her life has been in her own control ever since.
Three months ago, when Mary stepped on a cruise ship, she was confident in her decision but had no clue about the direction of the future. She escaped from her life and set out to find other ways, but in the end she found more than that.
She had two important friends, Anna and Camille, whose life had revolved around family and had few friends, but today she can finally say that she has two good friends.
They meet at the turning point of their respective lives, and even though they are all wounded, they still struggle to pursue happiness and pursue themselves, which makes them more intimate.
She also harvested love, which was an unexpected encounter. She thought she would never have love again, but when she met Loyk, she changed, and the man respected her, understood her, cherished her, and made her feel the sweetness of love.
The most important thing is to meet herself and find herself. Before traveling, she often remembered herself when she was a little girl, wondering what the girl would think when she saw herself like this.
Now, she could finally face the little girl calmly, and she had made herself back.
Three women, at the low point of life, met, accompanied each other, healed each other, and finally crossed the low valley and ushered in rebirth.
In fact, people's lives will encounter lows, the most important thing is to face the trough when your own choice, only bravely step over the past, your life will encounter new possibilities.
Life, it is not too late to find yourself when it starts, today, just the first day of the rest of your life.