People love routines. They like to do the same thing every day, without any sort of change because it gives them comfort. If people lived their lives by looking straight ahead instead of looking at what is around them, a lot of events would pass them by. Living your life, the same way everyday seemed to be exactly the opposite of what Wallace wanted when he was writing his speech, This is Water. When people get bored of living in a rut, they seem to feel trapped. Wallace was trying to show how easy it is to change people’s lives and how not every change comes from a positive thought process. He is exhibiting how people need to make meaning from their experiences, while navigating them away from having a conceded thought process. However, Wallace wants people to discover that they possess the ability to break their own patterns in life, which indicates why Wallace was such a strong believer of self-freedom. In the speech, This is Water, the author, David Foster Wallace, depicts how choices affect the normality of one's life.

For people to be able to grasp meaningful information from experience they have to be able to be open to interpretation. Experiences, although they can be shared with people can mean some many different things to so many different people. People need to become more “conscious and aware enough to choose what to pay attention to” (Wallace XII). When people grasp concepts in life, they being to think in alternative manners that help these ideas give personal meaning to people. No one is able to create a deep meaning from events in their lives if they do not strive to apprehend them. People have the choice to pay attention to what is presented in life so they can gain an understanding and “if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed” (Wallace XIII). The author is trying to prove how teaching someone to think is not about understanding, rather thinking abstractly. Millions of people leave school without the necessary information to thrive in a world filled with millions of problems. They are surrounded by the world and its inherent problems. Many people, opportunities, and events will pass people by unless they choose to focus on them.

People often live their lives thinking everything is about them, which causes them to think the world revolves around them. Along with this, people also believe that no one can have a better or worse day than themselves, and if someone does, they are a bad person for it. This is not the best way to live life, but it is the way a lot of people live their lived now a days because, “thinking this way tends to be so easy and automatic it doesn't have to be a choice” (Wallace XIV).  The up and coming generations are becoming lazier and lazier, Wallace is trying to describe the way people think and tell people to stop letting their lives run on a default setting. The people that graduate school leave with such similar ideas that they are almost indistinguishable to each other. Students often learn what they have to know and do not think much past it, they have stopped asking why something is the way it is, for that would involve detracting from the easy way. Graduates must be able to show individual skills that set them apart from those standing to their left and right. They must do more work to break the pattern, to think outside the bubble, it is impossible for people to solve problems if every given solution is the same. The world requires people with different mindsets and different ways of approaching everyday problems.

The ability to choose gives people the ability to look at life in an infinite number of manners, yet people do not use the power of choice to break the pattern because it usually is the harder way to live life. The everyday person must be aware of their surroundings and be open enough to understand that other people have problems while being able to see it from other people's viewpoints. People have the choice to see other people as having unrelated problems to themselves or to “consider the likelihood that everyone else in the supermarket's checkout line is just as bored and frustrated” (Wallace XV). Some days’ people get stuck in hazes where they are unable to look at life with a little bit of happiness and kindness, “but most days, if you're aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this… problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness” (Wallace XV). Wallace is trying to depict how people live in routines and to break this routine, many have to think of others in a way one normally would not. One of the biggest problems in society today is the narrow minded views that is placed on people through ethnic backgrounds, appearance, intelligence, etc. These types of biases cause opportunities that should be equal to all to fall out of balance. Everyone needs to break the norm and not live a boring, routine, defined life that cause problems beyond those seen at the surface.

Worshiping can be very difficult and can sometimes lead to the demise of people. This leads Wallace to believes that self-freedom is the only thing that can set us apart from each other.  The differences in people are not only seen in appearance or personality, but also in their worship practices. “The only choice we get is what to worship” in our daily lives (Wallace XVI). Wallace is trying to show how everyone is the same because everyone worships, but there is also a distinct difference in each of these people because of who or what they worship. People have the choice of following what others worship or going their own way and figuring out what is important to them. Wallace is trying to show that the average person needs to think on their own. Whatever they choose to worship will surround them and become the only thing that matters. This makes it the default setting, only broken by “personal freedom [,] the freedom...to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms” (Wallace XVI). This is the perfect entity to worship because it allows people to think for themselves. It gives people more choices that worshiping only one entity would not have. Instead of a narrow road leading to one destination, it creates many pathways to choose from.

Looking at the world from an outsider's viewpoint is hard, but a technique that is appreciated by anyone with a problem in their life. Taking the time to think about how others might be affected will help create significance. It creates a meaning that can be found in very few places. Finding meaning that others have not yet found creates individuality in every one of those people. Wallace was trying to tell people to stop looking at things from a narrow minded viewpoint. His goal was to get people to look around and spend a moment not thinking about themselves, but rather look at those who are not as fortunate or are experiencing problems that may be even worse when compared to their own. Not every moment in life is the same because many problems tend to repeat themselves, but people have to give meaning to them or else they will never be able to break free from the standard components of life. Everyone can live their life day in and day out, following others and doing what others do to survive. However, that will never be as interesting and knowledgeable as taking the time to realize what is important in life and what people should dedicate their time to. The goal of life is not just to survive past the daily obstacles, but to thrive in a lifetime that is unique to oneself.
