This is Water Essay
‘There is no experience you’ve had that you were not at the absolute center of’ (Wallace). Most of us go through our day unfazed by what is going on in the lives of others around us. We live our lives day by day experiencing what comes in our way. Most of the time we will not stop and think about what might be going on in the lives of the people around us. Very often we even judge how a person is acting or their attitude, but don’t stop to think about what that person might be going through. We judge and then expect others to understand when we are going through a difficult situation ourselves.
David Foster Wallace wrote a commencement speech for seniors graduating from Kenyon college in 2005. Wallace started off with a story about two fish in his speech: it was a symbolization of the reality of life. I personally believe David Foster Wallace’s speech was written to graduating seniors to inspire them not to live their lives in the ‘default-setting’. There are some cases where students are having some type of change and haven’t become so wrapped up to where they become unaware of their surroundings. Although, by the time student get to college the majority has begun a daily routine; whether that is with a job, class, or daily life.
In his speech you can tell many people felt the same way because they started to applaud: he had to remind them that he was giving a list of how not to think. He was mentioning things like self-absorption and basically saying that to ourselves we are our only concern. Wallace gave an example of daily life with a routine: going grocery shopping, frustrated, crowded, unmotivated and tired. He mentioned this example to motivate everyone to stay conscious and aware that other people around us have problems too.
There are some students that forced to grow up at an earlier age than others. For example, I have a friend that went to school and had to care for her younger siblings afterwards; She created a daily routine that way and experience self-absorption. She would come to school and express her frustration: her grades would show it, her attitude towards school, even the way she carried herself or dressed. Eventually, she moved away and still helped her mom every once and a while; but there was a difference from when she had that daily routine and responsibility all to herself.
Like I mentioned earlier, by the time student get to college they have usually had a job at some point. In my opinion, going to school and having a job can get difficult. I personally have had to get up in the mornings for school, get to my job right afterschool, get off work around midnight, do homework, shower and repeat the same day. This routine is shared by many student and of course we can easily get wrapped up in it we become unaware of what we are living daily.
There are some cases where some students do experience a lot of change in their daily life and don’t have a problem enjoying their daily life. For example, the student that have time for a hobby, or the ones that travel a lot, some that have no job and have the time to go out and enjoy time with family and friends. I think there are very few students that get to enjoy their daily life that way. Also, by the time they graduate and get their career started, it might even be more difficult to adjust to sticking to the daily routine and staying aware of their surroundings.
I believe David Foster Wallace wrote this speech to inspire the graduates to live their life conscious of their surroundings: not be absorbed by their daily routine whether it was because of their job, class or life in general. Wallace was giving examples of how people live their life and how it shouldn’t be so selfish and self-absorbed. The irony is that he was giving motivation of how not to the live the life he was living himself.
Works Cited
- Wallace, David foster. “What Is Water.”
