   David Wallace’s “This is Water” was intended for the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon. He uses imagery, metaphors and other figurative language to show the graduating class what the real world is like. It was known as an unordinary commencement speech which is why it caught so much attention. Wallace wants these kids to understand what their diploma means, for many do not understand the true meaning of the degree. Wallace says that their degree is not necessarily to get a good job but to be able to think the right way, “Of course the main requirement of speeches...has actual human value instead of just material payoff” (11). Wallace says this to inspire these students to be better people and to be more open minded because most people have this idea that they are the center of the world and that everything runs through them when that is not the way the world is especially if everybody thinks that way. The idea behind Wallace’s “This Is Water” was to give the students a “wake-up call”, which is to not let the students sink into the deep abyss of a default setting and to live a happy life unlike him. He recognizes that most people won’t even notice they are doing it which is why it is such a hard habit to break. Wallace wants the students to use their liberal arts education to be successful, and he portrays this theme through his metaphors, tone, dialect and personal experience. 

     Wallace wants people to see how life really is rather than what they hope it will be. Wallace may have upset some with the harsh reality, “If you’re like me as a student, you’ve never liked hearing this…that you already know how to think.” (11), but he also inspired many in the crowd to work harder and surpass basic expectations of life by inspiring people to break free of the “default setting” (16). This default setting is the idea that life is just a mindless cycle of going to your 9-5 then doing errands or chores then sleeping and repeating every day or the default setting can be described as the idea that you are the center of the world and that everybody should get out of your way. It can also be described as overly arrogant, egotistic and so on. This default setting occurs because your point of view is the only one you have ever experience so it is hard to “walk in someone else’s shoes” when you only know your shoes, “there is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute center of…but your own are so immediate, urgent, real.” (12). For example, when he tells the store of the guy in the grocery store after his long day at work he walks around judging everyone whether it was the mother yelling at her kids or the terrible service in the checkout line. The guy doesn’t take into account that maybe the mother is up all night with her dying husband or how the checkout lady is overworked and underpaid. The guy just takes into account that he was the only person who had a long day and wants to get home but in reality that is most people. A problem with humans is that they are so intelligent that one with over analyze when trying to correct itself that it gets lost, “is that it enables my tendency…what is going on inside me.” (12). Wallace says these two statements to join the ideas that a lot of people are stuck in this default setting and it takes great intellect to break free. Wallace wants the students to use their education to be caring for others and not be stuck in the idea that they are the only person on this Earth that matters. Wallace states that he himself knows how hard it is for someone to break the default setting, for it is something he struggles with too, “Again, please don’t think that I’m giving you moral advice…and if you are like me, some days you won’t be able to do it, or you just flat out don’t want to.” (15). Wallace shows that even though he is aware of the problem he stills lacks the perseverance to break it. Wallace would not have chosen this as his speech topic unless he felt it was a necessity to everyday life.

    In order to be happy a person has to want to be happy. The idea that life sucks and will never get better will stay with you unless you think otherwise. One cannot just expect things to just happen, they have work at them. They have to practice. The little voice in your head is like the water to the fish from the example in the beginning of the story. Fish swim and swim but they do not understand how they swimming or what they are swimming in or how important the water is, but when you take fish out water it’ll realize how important water is. This is similar to humans and the default setting. Humans do it without even knowing or thinking about it, then when one realizes they are thinking that way and stop. They’ll realize how much better life is when you are positive instead of being stuck in the “default setting” (16). His personal experience provides insight to exactly what goes on in someone’s head to show how much this could actually affect someone. He has extended metaphors in form of stories to provide comparison and examples from personal struggles in daily life. Wallace related to the main point of his commencement speech and struggled with breaking the default setting in everyday life. David Wallace committed suicide in 2008 (D.T Max,1). It is known that he was in deep depression but unsure whether that was the cause for his suicide or not. Many can infer that Wallace could not break the default setting which caused him to give up on life.
