Wallace This is Water

I think David Foster Wallace touched on a lot of important ideas in his commencement speech “This is Water.” I liked his suggestion of trying to focus on others around you and not just yourself at times. His explanations of the reasons behind why a person may appear and act the way they do are somewhat stretched but not impossible. You never know what may be going on in someone’s life and it is only fair to give them the benefit of the doubt. Of course we are not perfect and Wallace makes sure to mention the fact that we are all self-centered because that’s how we view the world, from our own perspective. We cannot avoid this fate no matter how hard we try.

One thing that troubled me in this article is that it is about commencement and entering the work world. This thought frightens and excites me at times, but Wallace’s article makes me dread it by how boring and awful he makes the working world sound.  His description of working and repeating  it all over again give no insight into the enjoyable moments of working, he makes work sound like something we should dread.