well, i’d like to start this post off by saying thank you to mister David Foster Wallace for delivering a speech which contained the “capital T Truth” and not some fake, so called inspirational, stuff. I honestly found that reading his speech was extremely refreshing. personally I like it when people give me the truth about a situation which is exactly what Wallace did throughout the course of his commencement address. This speech is something significantly different, stranger, and more inspirational than anything ive heard.  his speech stands out for three main reasons; he speaks the truth throughout the entirety of his address, the assertion does not solely apply to the graduates but everybody, and he offers a reasonable, attainable, and interesting call to action.

     throughout this address Wallace does not care for the proper format or formality of his speech, he simply cares for the message delivered. Wallace is straight forward with his audience explaining the exact purpose of the degree they worked so hard to earn. he mentions nothing about this degree improving intelligence or getting the graduates a better job, he simply says that the degree helps teach you how to think.  he acknowledges the fact that indeed no one is thought how to think, it comes with our brains, but he also points out that it does not teach the students to think, rather how to alter their thoughts, deepen them. we, as human beings, have no choice whether or not to think, but we can choose what we think about, it just takes awareness. at this point in his address I can imagine some students wondering why they spent so much time studying and stressing just to know that they have the power to choose what they think about. Wallace takes this moment to hit them hard with the truth that we are all incredibly and disgustingly selfish creatures. he uses examples such as being stuck in traffic or in line at the grocery store to explain precisely how selfish we are. In every inconvenient situation we stumble upon we think solely about the manners in which that situation affects US, how inconvenient it is for US. We never think about the lady behind us in line with a sick kid at home, just about how hungry and tired WE are. in 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus developed a theory called heliocentrism, meaning the sun in the center of the solar system. it seems as though in our brains we seem to believe in a theory of selfcentrism. we believe that we are the center of everything, we may not perform this selfish act of thought consciously, however we still do it. in fact that is Wallace’s main point in his address, saying that we all naturally are selfish without acknowledging it. at this point Wallace recognizes how “being taught how to think” can be useful and life changing. he states that with the degrees the students just earned they can each use their power of thought to break free from the false theory of selfcentrism.

     The next reason that this speech stands out is that it does not only apply to one sole audience but many people. I am not part of the 2005 graduating class from Kenyon, yet I was affected by his speech. the reason for this being that Wallace made the examples he used as concrete evidence relatable and interesting, like in any good argument. he used examples such as being sour and tired after work and being stuck in traffic, which is true for almost everyone at least once in their lives. I may not have a job, but I feel pretty crabby and exasperated after school each day. and I may have just gotten my license but traffic still sucks. examples like these make it easy for Wallace to capture his audience, make them truly interested in what he has to say. another example of his relating to many audiences would be the simple fact that we are all human. each of our brains is selfish and we all lack awareness to that. Wallace’s ability to reach and relate to many audiences makes his speech something like nothing ive read before.

     the final reason Wallace’s commencement address is so different and amazing is his simple and easy call to action. a normal commencement address ends with a call to action towards the graduates, whether it be to go change the world or go make something out of their degree they are always called to action. basic calls such as these are often times looked over and ignored because they are hard to accomplish and involve a lot of work. but the call to action that summarizes wallaces speech is so simple that the audience doesn’t mind thinking about it, and answering the call. Wallace simply asks that the graduates, or rather all who hear or read his speech, just think a little deeper sometimes. he asks that we as selfish human beings do our best to remove ourselves from the center of the universe and just think a little deeper about situations. this is not a call to action that proves too complicated to execute or too tedious. it simply involves thinking a little more each day.

     Honestly this speech surprised me in how much it affected me and how I think. already I am thinking deeper and adjusting my point of view. Wallace did a tremendous job of effectively capturing a broad audience and calling them to action in a matter of minutes. each of us is given the capacity to think on a much deeper level, why must we all sit on the surface operating by our default settings?

 

Click to access DFWKenyonAddress2005.pdf

 

 

so im currently sitting in class right now, and im hungry, tired, cold, and have to pee. so um school sucks, but its whatever. #bruh