this is water

years ago i read “this is water” by david foster wallace. a combination of childish naievity and hubris along with a lack of life experience made me unaware how true what he says in that speech is.

most of adult life is boring and inglorious. but it is life. the point of college, when we’re told it is for us to learn how to think, is not made entirely clear until we live this life. youre not being told how to think in this prescriptive way but rather the great exercise of your 4 years in school was to learn that thinking in and of itself is choice. you can choose to interpret situations in favorable and unfavorable ways but in the meagerness of life, the truly empowering notion is that you are capable of molding your thoughts to reflect a decency and compassion for others and yourself, or to think in a way that is selfish but inherent to all of us.

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174 - 09/09/2025