On May 21, 2005, David Foster Wallace gave a commencement speech at Kenyon College that informed his young audience of the annoyances of adult life.  Unlike most college commencement speeches, Wallace does not try to tell the students how amazing adult life is; rather he tries to shed light on the negative aspects of being an adult. He proposes troubling situations to his audience that he considers staple of adult life and informs them on what the natural response to the situations they face are. He says it is easy to fall into this natural inclination to put yourself at the center of every situation. He then offers a new way of interpreting these trying situations, by taking a step back and thinking of what the others in the situation may feel. Everyone else may feel the same boredom and frustration you do, but by using compassion you can overcome this way of thinking. He tells them that it’s hard to live life the way he is asking them to, but it can make the monotony of life more tolerable. In “This Is Water”, Wallace delivers a powerful speech on growing up and how we can choose to interpret the mundane annoyances that fill our everyday lives to make life more tolerable. 

Wallace begins his speech by utilizing an analogy, which highlights a conversation between fish, one old and two young. The older fish asks the younger fish, “How’s the water?” This leads them to question the very reality in which they live (Wallace).  Wallace proceeds to delve into how humans become accustomed to living in a sort of autopilot mode, not being aware of the repercussions of their unconscious thought. He talks about how as we grow older we lose our awareness of how careless we truly are about life. We start to look at the world as if we are the center of it in every situation, and do not think about the water from another fish’s perspective. 

Most college commencement speeches try to instill ideals of a hopeful future and explain how great life is about to be, Wallace does quite the opposite in his speech. He speaks on a plethora of everyday scenarios, and the mind set a normal person would have in said scenarios. He explains that there are everyday scenarios that we will find annoying, and we will reflect this annoyed attitude onto those around us. It is thought of as normal to take this approach to the monotony of adult hood, but Wallace try’s to explain there is a way to avoid living life on this preset mode.

After telling how tiresome being an adult truly is, Wallace offers a way to avoid being aggravated by these trifles of the day. Although these inconveniences seem unavoidable, through changing our perspective our entire attitude about said situations can be altered. As with many things in life interpretation can make an enormous difference on the feelings and attitudes we have towards certain events and scenarios. Many times we will feel slighted and feel that a person is personally insulting us, but this is merely a state of mind revolving around ourselves. Wallace explains that if we take a step back and view the situation without putting ourselves first, we can make the situation more tolerable. Often we take a selfish approach to life, which leads to being inconsiderate to those around us who are stuck in the same situation. 

Feeling that we are the center of a situation seems inherent as if it were in our nature. We have to actively think about the world in a selfless manner to not feel the weight of these inconvenient situations. Wallace makes it very clear that living life this way is definitely not easy, but can make our lives so much more tolerable and enjoyable in the long run. By reevaluating situations when we become upset we can act in a compassionate way that helps everyone in the situation.

“This is Water” is a memorable speech delivered by David Foster Wallace, explaining how we will be faced with trying situations and that we can overcome them with a change in perception. Wallace does not try to glamorize adulthood like most commencement speeches rather he tries to shed light on the unspeakable inconveniencing everyday situations we face. Wallace explains that humans have a proclivity interpret any situation by putting ourselves at the center. He further explains that this way of thinking has leads to these inconveniencing situations getting the better of us. Wallace tells about how taking a step back and making ourselves just like everyone else in the same situation we begin to feel compassion, and our annoyed mood fades. This way of thinking takes self control and can be extremely difficult but unlike the natural response it can make life just a little more tolerable.
