1. In David Foster Wallace’s speech, “This Is Water”, he argues against falling into the belief that we are “the absolute centre of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in existence” (3), but rather suggests that we make an effort to consider other people’s circumstances as more important than our own, allowing us to break out of our default mindset in which our needs are more real than everyone else’s (9). In this way, DFW urges the graduating class to break away from the prison of their own perspective, and to utilize “the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education”(5) which allows you “The really important kind of freedom… being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day” (10).

  1. DFW’s speech begins by using a parable about fish to introduce the idea that the most important truths in life are often so obvious that we tune them out altogether. His fish parable features two young fish who encounter an older fish, and the older fish asks them how the water is. the younger fish are confused and one asks the other “What the hell is water?” (Wallace 1). This parable goes against what you might assume about a fish’s understanding of their reality. A fish might not understand what water is because they’ve never experienced anything but the water. It would be like asking your friend how the air was. They may correct you and ask if you meant the weather, because it seems so silly to ask someone how the air is. I also realized that the reason the older fish knows what water is, is because he was likely caught by a fisherman at some point and released. Wallace uses this parable to present his argument about how the college experience doesn’t tell us “how to think”, but rather “the choice of what to think about” (Wallace).
  1. Wallace goes on to explain what he means by “the choice of what to think about” by using a relatable story of an after-work supermarket trip to get groceries. He suggests multiple ways to think about the unpleasant scenario, and the first two are entirely self-centered. Then he submits another way to think about the situation, which is to think other’s experience instead of your own. He