David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College, This is Water, is utterly unique in comparison to any other commencement speech. Wallace’s speech omits sugar coating and instead informs the graduates of reality and the absolute truth that follows them once they step into the real world as adults. The speech expands on Wallace’s focus towards the idea that a liberal arts education has “nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness” (XVII). Being aware and attentive allows us to think open-mindedly and consider others feelings rather than just ourselves. Through fairly negative connotations and relatable, yet unpleasing imagery, Wallace reveals the ways in which a liberal arts education teaches us to adjust our natural default setting and maintain awareness in order to overcome daily occurrences.

Being that his audience is about to enter the real adult world, Wallace provides them with prominent examples of occurrences they will soon face everyday, such as getting stuck in traffic on the way to the grocery store after a long day at work. Although Wallace notes that this is common for everyone, he clarifies that “it hasn’t been part of [the] graduates’ actual life routine”, and that the adult world has a very repetitive lifestyle (XIV). Unlike college students, most adults go day-to-day juggling a multitude of responsibilities, following the same exact schedule with little free time on their hands. Wallace describes how due to this ongoing lifestyle, most of us will tend to get stuck in a “natural default setting” and automatically believe that “[we] are the absolute center of the universe; the realist, most vivid and important person in existence” (XII). For that reason, we tend to disregard those around us and petty ourselves for comfort: “I can spend time in the end-of-the-day traffic being disgusted about all the huge, stupid, lane-blocking SUV’s and Hummers” (XIV). Although this selfish, yet accurate natural default setting is unconscious and automatic, it can be altered. In order to break away from this negative adult life style he is describing to the graduates, Wallace transitions into portraying a mind set in which he describes as “well-adjusted” in a sense that one “gets to decide what has meaning and what doesn’t” (XV). If one decides that something does in fact have meaning, they will pay attention to it and think about the little things that come into play in order to carefully react to whatever measure is at hand. Those who are capable of being well-adjusted will take on these daily events with a positive outlook, leading to an overall pleasant lifestyle. 

Alongside with our daily happenings, Wallace points out how “the work of choosing is [going to] come in” (XIV). We all have a choice of how we want to view and react to each occurrence we face in our life. While one can choose to get frustrated at those around them in traffic or at the grocery store, another could think “that some of these people probably have harder, more tedious and painful lives than I do” (XV). Instead of having an egoistic and closed-minded train of thought day to day, we can choose to be open-minded and considerate of others if we become more aware of our surroundings. Given that he too is only human, Wallace understands that staying aware and caring of others at all times is hardly possible. He reminds his audience that he is not perfect and can’t always break his natural default mindset to view things open-mindedly: “It takes will and effort, and if you are like me, some days you won’t be able to do it, or you just flat out won’t want to” (XV). Statements like such recap the idea that Wallace is not teaching the graduates how to think. Wallace expresses his understanding of “the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think” (XII). He wants the graduates to all comprehend the fact that it is their choice how they want to assess their daily happenings and realize that they are in complete control of their brains. 

Without having control and being aware of our thoughts at all times, we are not exercising our full potential of personal freedom. Mentally training ourselves to break free from our natural default settings will allow us to maintain awareness and become well-adjusted, in which Wallace claims is “the freedom of real education” (XV). Being that the overall message of his speech is how awareness and a well-adjusted mindset, over knowledge, is the underlying key to a liberal arts education, it is nothing short of irony that “in 2008, Wallace [hung] himself after decades of battling with depression” (XVII). Ironically, Wallace mentioned the act of suicide corresponding with the way we think in his speech: “It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head” (XIII). By depicting his interpretations after gaining insight on his death, the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College now gain the understanding that while Wallace was speaking to them, he was correspondingly actually speaking to himself.
