"This is Water" by David Foster Wallace

            Throughout my entire life, most of the important choices I’ve had to face have been decided for me, such as what school to go to, what subjects I should take, what sports I should play, and so on. When we are younger, the majority of our choices aren’t made by us because we are not at the age where we can make the “right” choice. This meaning, we learn to make good choices by the way we are raised, right from wrong and also through experience. Sometimes these choices made for us are beneficial and we don’t realize it until later in life. For example, all throughout elementary and middle school I was horrible in math. I struggled every year and was behind everyone in my class. My mother chose to send me to tutoring for a couple of years to improve my math skills. To this day, math is now my strongest subject in school. At that time, I may not have agreed with her choice or want to go to tutoring, but it ultimately helped me in my future.

        

         Choices are essentially one of the key elements to freedom. We make choices every day whether they are good or bad. In Wallace’s speech, he talks about the fundamental choices that affect our future. I completely agree with this idea because we know ourselves better than anyone. We all know our desires and make certain choices in order to fulfill those desires. Although we don’t always make the best choices, we learn from experiences and take from them to make better ones. Like I said before, from an early age we are all taught right from wrong to help make better choices in our lives. We cannot learn to make the right choices without making wrong ones along the way. These choices do in fact allow us to engage in the world differently than others. Our experiences are essential to our growth and development as a human being. The choices we make ultimately affect our lives severely which is why it is important we make the best choices all of the time.

         Throughout Wallace’s speech, he talks about how he believes that he is the center of the world and only his desires are important.  In my opinion, this was an interesting idea. We all believe that our desires and needs in life are more important than others. For example, if a friend of mine wants something and doesn’t get it, I’m not as likely to get upset about it as he or she might be; whereas if I don’t get something I desire, I will be unhappy and I will expect others to feel the same. This shows how “socially repulsive” as he would say, that we are. We ignore the feelings and situations of others that may have a worst reality than us. We chose to think this way and we choose to believe that our immediate needs determine the world’s priority, which was a very valid point that Wallace made in his speech.

        

         In Wallace’s speech, the audience applauded and laughed at things you’d usually just sit there and think about. Although it may have seemed that Wallace was insulting the audience, I believe he was only being honest. Wallace’s speech about liberal arts was very informative and was full of examples of the way we think. I believed the audience laughed in some of these moments because they realized what Wallace was saying was true, whether they have experienced it themselves before or realize that some of these things could happen to them. Some of the people in the audience may laugh simply because they are showing their ignorance of the information being presented to them.

         David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water” was a very insightful speech. It made me think more about my choices in life and to think them more through, especially this year as a senior applying to colleges. I only want to make the best choices for myself and have the best future possible. I expect happiness out of the decisions I make in my life and refuse to live a life of regret and disappointment. Hopefully by doing this, I can motivate others to make better choices to improve their future as well.