In the speech This is Water by David Foster Wallace, he persistently repeats the idea of teaching someone how to think. That idea can sound very general, but Wallace tries to convey the point that learning to think will make you appreciate more in life and be more conscious of every day life. The question brought up, “What the hell is water? “ (Wallace), like something you could answer easily and obviously in a literal manner. Rather it means more; It can be seen as a way of saying, “What is the point of living? Or in other words, “Why am I here and doing this?” In reality, as much as we think we are smart enough, we do not think the right way most of the time as people; hence we may not find all the answers. That is though until we live the right experiences, meet the right people or go through the biggest challenges. For myself, I have encountered this through traveling and learning about my family’s history. In my opinion, when you teach someone to think, you open the world to him or her and they see everything in bigger and more positive way. Our job as humans is to find a purpose in our life and give a meaning to it ourselves, so at the end of the day or when we feel like it is time, we can answer the question Wallace asks to ourselves. 

In the fish’s point of view, I could see the question “What the hell is Water” being asked, as it is something so natural to us and so important, but a necessity that is not explainable. Though, we shouldn’t literally think about it as water, the author rather argues and leaves it up to our interpretation as a reality that is hard to talk about or bring up.  In this instance, it is nothing sensitive, but in my view it can be.  A good example that can relate could be controversial topics that are still relevant in society such as our justice system or racism, issues that could be argued that have relevance today. It has a correlation to the  “This is water” theme because if we have the ability to make a difference to change or find something, we should use our instincts and carry out a way to solve something, just like ending police brutality or even just simply researching and finding more about water itself.

Further on, Wallace repeats the idea once again, but brings up a real world application. He ironically states that the liberal arts students were admitted to a prestigious school because they proved they could think in the classroom, but are still taught how they could, proving it can be rather contradictory. I believe he is generalizing when he says this. Wallace says this because maybe the majority of those kids grew up with affluent families and didn’t necessarily have to worry about much growing up. But, this doesn’t speak for those kids who had to mature at a young age. Those kids coming from a lower social status that had to help take care of their families by working at age 14 for instance, and had to learn how to think more maturely  right away.  But in this context, I do see what Wallace is indicating, speaking in the perspective of those graduates. In short words, he wants to tell them to learn how to think immediately because life will not be as easy anymore and it will hit them in the face right away.  That is, for example, the responsibilities of paying bills or even having kids, and how they will adjust to that. The way he talks about how they are being taught the way to think represents the theme itself of their education/ their degree and its value in how it can prepare them to think about and be aware of everything that is around them. 

In another passage, a story is told of two men and their disagreement about a guy being rescued by either god or an Eskimo. The point is they differ in belief, so they will both have different views on what really saved the man. With the theme of teaching someone how to think, this story in the paragraph could remind the reader to appreciate the different views, because they could both definitely be correct. Wallace wants us to be open minded about what people think, because that is what makes a human more knowledgeable. When somebody is more knowledgeable, they are less prejudice. Humans in general are naturally selfish in a way, and if we can learn how to think, we can avoid that in a sense. In any day-to-day situation, we can have a bad workday and everything is going wrong, thinking the world is falling apart. With us thinking we are the center of the universe and that everything is about us, we don’t realize maybe someone is battling a break up behind us or even struggling to make ends meet. 

This repeated phrase of “learning how to think” from the speech is a reminder for students and people that learning to do this won’t necessarily make our life better, but it could make us happier and more satisfied with life. Wallace uses this phrase repeatedly with many short stories and examples in his speech to indicate that if we talk about real things that make us sensitive, and if we share our ideas with open thought, we as people will grow. Just like the question, “What the Hell is Water”; the speech is corresponded to reality and for people to find the deeper meaning with things we think we cannot control. The different times this phrase is used as tells us that we can find different ways to come across our uncomfortable zones to better shape our lifestyle, and I think that is what he tried to thematically prove with the importance of what those students leave off as they head to the real world after graduation.  You could say that when a person finally learns how to think, they have reached their full potential as adults, and are ready for life’s biggest curveballs. 