
Freedom, a basic human right that we are all born with and continue to have for as long as we live. On a practical level, freedom is the basis of life and we think about freedom as being able to what we want when we want. But, is freedom that simple? In David Foster Wallace’s, “This Is Water” the word freedom is brought up over and over again in the text and for good reason. I argue that Wallace uses the word freedom in a way that is far from the practical meaning. He uses this universal word in a way that he urges the reader to look at freedom from several different aspects every single day of our lives. Freedoms such as education, the freedom to have awareness, and the freedom to have discipline, are all examples of freedom’s we should never overlook. It is important to focus on freedoms from a different viewpoint because they create an open minded outlook on life. It can help people break free from the normalness of society and become their own person, in turn becoming free. He motivates the reader to focus on what freedoms are important to living life to the fullest. This difference could be very significant to impact one's life. According to Wallace, freedom has many more meanings than it is credited for, and has a much deeper meaning under the surface. 

School is tool given to millions of children and adults around the world everyday. School helps mold young and old minds everyday and is essential to the future of any nation. However, the education people receive from school is the real thing people are actually bringing out into the world. A person’s attitude, way of thinking, and overall way they carry themselves can be drawn back to their education. “This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t” (Wallace XV). Wallace puts forth in his text that we all have the freedom to this real education and we all have the freedom to take advantage of this. Wallace is using freedom to describe how one can change the way they think and completely re evaluate their attitude toward the world. The word freedom in this context is describing the way people can have their own mindset, they are the owner of their own mind and can chose what to follow and who to follow as well as thinking in any way want. 

Furthermore, Wallace argues in his speech that there is a whole collection of freedoms out there in the world waiting to be taken advantage of, yet he also stretches that the important kinds are sometimes mistakenly overlooked. “But of course there are all different kinds of freedom and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much about” (Wallace XVI). What Wallace is saying here is simple, he expresses that there are freedoms galore but we should try more as a population to focus on the real freedoms, the freedoms that can improve our lives. Students often fall victim to false freedoms because they seem simple and are always their for the taking. Freedoms that mean something include the freedom to be happy and make others around you feel the same way, the freedom to care for others in a way never thought possible, or to have the freedom to make everyday better than the last, because something Wallace also expands upon in the text is life before death, and this living is not worth it if these freedoms are not apart of one’s life. 

Looking deeper into certain freedoms, according to Wallace, there are some that greatly outway others and must be apart of life. “The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline” (Wallace XVI). This statement can be derived from Wallace’s previous stance on important kinds of freedoms. Here we see what Wallace is really getting after, the specific types of freedom people should focus on and understand. These freedoms come from being educated and understanding the world around you. In addition, when looking at discipline and awareness I regard that Wallace uses these words as characteristics of caring for other people. We have the freedom to be aware of the world around us and to take what it from we can, and we have the discipline to chose what is right and what is wrong.  When saying these aspects of freedom, Wallace is referring to sacrificing one’s own being for the welfare of others. In a way, I propose that Wallace’s intended meaning is the more people grasp the necessary freedoms in front of them, the more overall free they become. The more free these people become the happier they will become in their life ahead. Moreover, Wallace stresses life before death as well in the text and furthermore states, “The capital t-truth is about life before death. It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge and everything to do with simple awareness” (Wallace XVII). Here again we see Wallace referring back to what real freedoms are and how vital they are to one’s life before death. Simply put, without these groundbreaking, cardinal freedoms, life as we know it has less value. 

A college student’s graduation is a hallmark in their lives and a day they will certainly never forget. Everything down to the speech to the shoes they wore, a student will never forget that experience. By the same token, David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech is one that can never be overlooked. Providing insight, career advice, and long term keys to success, this legendary final feature will be engraved in the minds of students. The most important aspect of the speech as a whole is the idea of freedom. Freedom is way more than the eye can see. On the surface, freedom seems straightforward and plain but when we look closely, Wallace explains that freedom is one of the most important aspects of life. The freedom of real education, the freedom to be free thinking, the freedom to be happy and care for others are freedoms that make life worth living and are not so simple but rather very complex. Conclusively, living a true life, or in other words, being free, according to Wallace is not impossible as long as citizens focus on the right freedoms. 