In “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace, he goes at this graduation speech in a different way than graduation speeches heard today. He wants everyone to understand what life is, what all they will actually go through, and how to handle it their own way. The author wants students to realize that everything they’ve learned so far means nothing. Maybe they will use some of the actual knowledge given to them, but that they will never fully understand what the “real world” is like until they have actually been there themselves. 

Wallace wants them to realize that the change they are about to go through is something they do not fully realize yet, but soon will by going off to college or straight into the work force. In his opening paragraph he states, 

“There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet and older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, ‘Morning, boys. How’s the water?’ And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes ‘What the hell is water?’(X).

This analogy of life is an example that they do not have any knowledge of what they are about to go through in the “real world.” His story of the two fish really shows young people do not realize what they are actually going through because it is using the fish, having lived in water all their lives, and yet they still do not understand what water actually is. Students today in high school and even some in college think they know what it is but actually have no idea at all, while high school student about to graduate are eighteen years or older and think they know everything, which is just like when your parents tell you, that one day you will learn they are smarter than you. The author states later, “The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.” (X). This also shows that not many people do not like to talk about this subject. People are scared to explain what life actually is because for many people it is actually different. Understanding what life actually is and what it means to them comes with experience and is something they do not truly understand until they have actually been in the “real world.”

Wallace also wants the students to understand what they will go through in life. He uses the story of the religious man and the atheist as one example of this (XI). He is showing that in life they will meet many people, some they may agree with about certain topics and some they may not agree with. And since people have different views they are scared to actually say which one is right and stand up for what they actually believe.  He also says, “everything of my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in the world” (XI).  Everyone has this view. Everyone thinks their opinion and what they believe is the absolute right truth and no one can change that. He tells students that eventually they will have a normal life, stating

By way of example, let’s say it’s an average adult day, and you get up in the morning, go to your challenging, white-collar, college-graduate job, and you work hard for eight or ten hours, and at the end of the day you’re tired and somewhat stressed and all you want is to go home and have a good supper and maybe unwind for an hour, and then hit the sack early because, of course, you have to get up the next day and do it all again(XII).

This shows that their life will not have much change. They will get up, go to work, eat their meals, and sleep. Not much changes from that. Everything they have done in high school and in college to get that job, leaves them with a boring life that does not have much change. Now maybe they will have a wife they get to spend time with and enjoy parts of life with, but for the most part their life day in and day out will be the same boring routine as it was the day before.

Finally, Wallace wants students to understand how to handle what this “real world” throws at them and how to push through making life enjoyable and not that boring life previously mentioned. He uses the example of the being in traffic to show that maybe you hate being stuck in traffic like most people do, but the fact is that you might be just going to the store to get something (XIII). Others in the traffic might be trying to get to an emergency or just scared of getting in a terrible auto accident. He wants the students to realize that the obstacles they are going through, there will always be others going through more urgent or worse situations than them. Yes, they may be in some of these terrible situations, but that’s a fact of life and once that is gone realize that other people are going through the same or worse situations at a different time than you. Wallace mentions how you will end up having default settings. He uses these as a good thing. He says they will be weak, afraid, smart, dumb, and a fraud. These settings will cause frustration, but in the end it will all be because of self worship(XVI).

All three of these main ideas Wallace gives them are real world scenarios that will actually happen one day. He uses real world stories and examples to show students what life is, what they actually will go through, and how to handle them self through these situations. He shows that many students listening to this speech think they know what life is but actually have no idea. He is not trying to scare them, but wishes to warn them of what is coming and how they should go about life in the “real world.”
