Restarting Life at Thirty: A Summer Dream

At thirty-two, Xia Wan lost two things on the same day: her job and a stranger she'd only met once.

On the morning she lost her job, she lay in the middle of the road, watching the clouds. A car came toward her, and a boy in a white T-shirt pulled her to her feet. The dawn light burst open behind him. Before she could thank him, the morning rush swept them apart.

All she remembered was his hand: dry, warm, strong.

For the rest of that summer, she waited for him on that road every day. A man whose name she didn't even know.

That summer, Xia Wan wavered between choices, torn between searching and giving up, struggling with the question of whether someone in their thirties could still afford to be willful.

Then one evening, at an old noodle shop, she looked at the steaming bowl of beef noodles in front of her and made a vow:

"Let this bowl of noodles bear witness. From this day on, I swear to eat well, sleep well, and walk properly. I won't lie in the road watching clouds until I forget that cars are coming and going. I'll laugh when I want to laugh and cry when I want to cry. If I meet someone I like, I'll take a few extra looks. If I run into something I hate, I'll go around it. I'll live with all my heart."

This isn't a story about gaining something. It's about how to find yourself again after losing everything.

If you're between thirty and forty-five and going through the midlife battle: career stagnation, emotional burnout, self-doubt;

if you believe some people don't come into your life to stay forever, but to pull you back to your feet,

then this book was written for you.