It is noted that happiness is the key to a wonderful and beautiful life. In David Foster Wallace's story, This Is Water, Wallace explains that going through everyday life with a positive outlook and attitude can change how one handles the " day in and day out," (Wallace, XII-XIV). This Is Water, written for the Kenyon College 2005 graduating class, says it does not matter how frustrating or tiring life may seem, one should never have a negative perspective because it leads to a troubled life. After Wallace hung himself in 2008, it was discovered that Wallace was suffering from depression for twenty years. In This is Water, one can feel a sense of yearning in what he was trying to convey. He was telling the students not to let everyday life feel like a job but rather to live positively. Life is made memorable and joyous in one's own surroundings by having a positive outlook, living life differently than others, and making life worth living. 

People constantly ask what life is really about. Well, what the heck is life? "What the hell is water?" (Wallace XII). Life is about being optimistic; life is about finding who one is in this world; life is finding happiness in everything. Happiness is in everything, as twisted as it may be. People can find happiness in just about everything: reading, writing, walking, sports, academics, and sometimes even in a twisted manner like murder. A great amount of people live with being unhappy and angry all the time, and they try to avoid it, but one must understand that one cannot escape it. 

"Let me tell you something you already know the world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life, but it ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward how much you can take and keep moving forward, that's how winning is done." (Rocky)

What one must do is, take a step back, and just decide how one must be and go for it. "The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing comes in," (Wallace, XIV). One cannot know what life is going to be like, but one can choose how one reacts, only then is that a measurement of one as a person. 

Different people live different lives. A lot of people live life with regret, anger, and grudges. On the other hand, others live life with happiness and no regrets. One can live life differently by just doing that, doing things differently; not being in a desk job; not doing the same thing, hour by hour, days after days, months after months, year after year. "Empty your mind  be formless  shapeless. Like water. If you put water into a cup it becomes the cup. You put the water into a bottle. It becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend." (Bruce Lee Water). One must choose to be optimistic, wear one's heart on their sleeve, adapt to one's surroundings, and so on and so forth. As individuals grow, society tells to live a certain way, get good grades, go to college, be the picture perfect individual. That is when choices come into play; happiness is in the choice.

Making life worth living is about the risks one takes, the memories one makes, and the things one keeps around. In years to come, one can't get away from the memories, and the never-ending questions of what could have happened. Love, is definitely being something that makes life worth living. Going through life with someone, let alone that someone be one's significant other, or a companion. "The capital-T Truth is about life before death," (Wallace, XVII). If one thinks about it, what makes life worth living is anything and everything. 

In the year of 2008, Wallace took his own life and hanged himself. It was discovered that he had depression for a long period of time, which is what caused his death. "It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive, day in and day out," (Wallace XVII). In This Is Water Wallace was trying to convey to the class of 2005 to live their life to the fullest and always be happy because Wallace never had the chance to. He wanted them to have a life worth living for. The story explains what life is really about and how analyzing life in a positive perspective rather than a negative one can benefit a person in the long run. 

