Response to David Foster Wallace, "2005 Kenyon Commencement Speech"

David Foster Wallace, “Kenyon Commencement Speech”, is not your average commencement speech. Instead of the traditional speeches where the speaker tells the graduating class that they’re going to do great things and etc, Wallace gives them a reality check and basically tells them that adulthood is boring and routine.  In his speech he is addressing Kenyon’s 2005 graduating class, bequeathing among to them one of the biggest fundamental truth of life. His main point that he’s trying to get across is that the choices he/she make have an effect on how he/she view life. Basically anything can be miserable if one chooses to view things in a negative aspect. For instance, he talks about the supermarket, how one gets mad  and full of anger about the long, long, very long line because there aren’t enough checkout lanes open or how there is always someone in your way at the store who wont move their cart, or being slow taking up the whole aisle. Because of this, one deplores the idea of going to the supermarket. From this he tells the graduating class to not allow petty stuff like this to frustrate them and that this is where the work of choosing comes in. Instead of getting mad about the crowded aisles or the extensive wait in the long line at the checkout lane, just consider the probability that everyone else in line feels the same way; tired and frustrated  and that they probably had a horrible day or live a more tedious life.  

I personally think that Wallace has point; just like him I think that everyday choice about how to view instances in one’s life is an effect on how one view life. But, in times we all forget to view things differently because of the situation that we’re in, whether it’s long waits at the line in the supermarket or someone driving fast and cutting you off in the road, human nature is going to come in to play and humans we are going to get mad. When it comes to road I am very impatient, so I know I’m not going to think about why the driver cut me off, I’m going to think that the driver is crazy, rude and about how he could have almost killed me. What Wallace is trying to say don’t get mad because no one knows why the driver is cutting the other drivers off, the driver could be rushing his son could the hospital. We need to learn to put others situations before our own sometimes, which is hard because being human we automatically going put ourselves before anybody else. That concept is one of the valuable things you can learn from his speech.

What I found so moving about the speech is his analogy with the fish. In the beginning he says, “There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an 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?”” He then says goes to say the story simply means that the important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.  But, its not that, that moved me, it’s what the fishes symbolized that moved. The two younger fishes symbolize youth and ignorance (not knowing) and older fish symbolizes knowledge. It moved me because although the younger fish don’t know what water is, but they will know later on in life, because they are going to be swimming in that water for the rest of their lives doing the same routine everyday. This reminded me of the younger folks today and how little we know than the elders. Also it made me think about how my life is routine, I wake up, shower, put clothes on , go to school, hang with friends, do homework and sleep to wake up and do the same thing the next day. From reading this, I was thinking, “holy crap, my life is routine, I do the same thing every freaking day,”, “I must be boring.”, “Am I going to end up like my parents”. I haven’t ever thought about my life this way until I read this speech.