Of course the main requirement of speeches like this is that I’m supposed to talk about your liberal arts education’s meaning, to try to explain why the degree you are about to receive has actual human value instead of just a material payoff. Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude, but the fact is that in the day to day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have a life or death importance, or so I wish to suggest to you on this dry and lovely morning. The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. The story thing turns out to be one of the better, less bullshitty conventions of the genre, but if you’re worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise, older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don’t be. This is a standard requirement of US commencement speeches, the deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories. 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?” 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. “Greetings parents and congratulations to Kenyon’s graduating class of 2005.
![i am da one original i am da one original](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7I91Tp9iwC4/maxresdefault.jpg)
![i am da one original i am da one original](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6WxaaQGBCW8/maxresdefault.jpg)
Here are the links to the original audio followed by the entire speech.
![i am da one original i am da one original](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aaHuoljUsBI/hqdefault.jpg)
Wallace hits on our need to manage rather than remove our core hard-wired human instincts. David Foster Wallace‘s 2005 commencement speech to the graduating class at Kenyon College, is a timeless trove of wisdom - right up there with Hunter Thompson on finding your purpose and living a meaningful life. The speech was made into a thin book titled This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life.