At 41, My Life Looks Nothing Like I Imagined | A Day in Wuhan, China

I’m 41, single, have no kids, and I don’t work a regular nine-to-five. I still live with my 70-year-old mother in Wuhan, China. Ten years ago, if you told me this would be my life at 41, I probably would’ve thought something had gone wrong. But today, I’m not sure I’d trade it for a more “normal” life. In this video, I’m taking you through a very ordinary day in Wuhan. I start the morning with a classic Wuhan breakfast — hot dry noodles, egg rice wine, and mianwo for about $1.50. The noodle shop happens to be right across from the elementary school I went to as a kid, and sitting there made me realize it has already been 28 years. After breakfast, I ride my motorcycle to a friend’s apartment to feed her cat and clean the litter box while she’s in the hospital. She’s divorced, raising her child on her own, and recently injured her leg badly enough to need surgery. The older I get, the more I realize that a lot of people around me aren’t following the traditional path of marriage, kids, and the kind of family life we once thought everyone was supposed to have. Later, I stop by a Cainiao pickup station to collect some packages. Those packages are also connected to one of the biggest questions people ask me: If I don’t have a regular job, how do I make money? That evening, I set up my lights and phone and start filming immersive toy unboxing and review videos. This is one of the ways I support myself today. I film, edit, work on the audio, upload the videos, and manage everything myself. There’s no boss telling me when to clock in — but that also means I have to know when to push myself. After work, I play some old games and think about how different life felt when I was younger. Back then, I didn’t think about my mother getting older, friends getting divorced or ending up in hospitals, money, age, or what my life was supposed to look like. At night, I make a bag of dumplings that cost about $1.40, sit in front of my computer, and watch food videos while it rains outside. I never made it to the fireworks show I had planned. Nothing especially dramatic happened. But at this point in my life, this feels like a very real kind of happiness.