People are blind to the world around them. People become so wrapped up in their daily lives that they forget that there is so much more in the world. In the speech given by David Foster Wallace, This is Water, Wallace talks about how repetitive the daily life of the average working man is, always doing the same tedious routine every day. People become blind to the lives of those around them and focus only on their selves. Wallace points out that people should think more about the world around them and be more considerate to others. Just because they are having a bad day does not give them the right to be angry and rude to others. Others could be in an even worse situation than they are. People forget that there is more to the world than their job and their life at home. Instead of getting mad at the world and getting mad at others, people should look at the world around them and explore and think of the lives of others, not just themselves.

In society today, people do the same routine every day for most of their adult lives. College students may not exactly understand what this really means, because they have not yet had to work the typical eight hours every day. They have not lived the same day for years over and over. What Wallace tries to say is that college students do not yet understand how hard it will be when they get out of college. He says many college graduates have experienced a typical adult day, but they have not yet experienced the typical adult life. They still have not worked the same job for years or went through the same routine every day. But once they graduate and enter the real world, they will truly understand what it means to be an adult.

Another point that Wallace attempts to for, is not that living an adult life is dreadful, but instead it is yourself who chooses if your life is dreadful or not. In the typical day of an adult, there are many things that can become frustrating for some. But Wallace says that one has to choose to get out of the mindset that one is the center of the world. There are billions of other people in the world living the same repetitive adult life. There is no point in getting frustrated and annoyed by them, because they are going through the same things. People tend to forget about the world around them and focus on themselves and their needs. One has to consciously try to think that “this is [their] natural default-setting” (Wallace). It is a person’s choice to think of others and how they choose to act towards another person. Wallace says that adults may not be able to think of others every day because sometimes people may just be angry and frustrated that day and not have the will to think of others (Wallace). In society today, life can become extremely repetitive but people need to look at the people around them and not focus on themselves. Some days it may be impossible, but most days’ people should try and think of others. If everyone did this, then in the end, the world would be a much happier place. 

Wallace states in his speech that thinking of others is not necessarily the right thing to do or that people are supposed to think in this exact way (Wallace).  It is a choice that a person makes themselves. One does not have to be intelligent or come from a prestigious college to be able to think of others more than oneself. People only need to be sure of their surroundings and start to notice the world around them and not just focusing on what pertains to themselves. To be aware, one has to take in the lives of others and consider that their lives may not be as hard as others around them, and that they may be just as annoying to others as they are to them. Sometimes it is best to take a step back and become aware of the world around oneself, not become wrapped up in one’s own life and what oneself might want or think they need. The world we live in is inhabited by about seven billion people. That means that one person takes up about one seven billionth of the world. In perspective, that makes one seem unimportant and insignificant, but that is the opposite of the truth. Every person in this world has the power to make the world a better place by being aware of others’ lives and being kind to others no matter what. It is only the person’s choice in this world to become aware of others. 

People are blind to the world around them. People become so wrapped up in their daily lives that they forget that there is so much more in the world. People do have a choice to think of others more however. One can think of others and make the world a better place. Just because someone may be having a bad day does not give them the right to be angry and rude to others. Others could be in an even worse situation than they are. In society today, life becomes a very repetitive process and very tedious. People forget that there is more to the world than their job and their problems and their life at home. Instead of getting mad at the world, and getting mad at others, people should look at the world around them and explore and think of the lives of others, not just themselves. This is not about being moral, “None of this is about morality, or religion, or dogma, or big fancy questions of life after death” (Wallace). This is about life before death, and making the best of it. In the end, this would make the world a little better to live in.
