Exploring Outside the Self

Empathizing with other people is not something that comes naturally to most human beings, and for good reason; as babies we come into the world hardwired to be egocentric. The world revolves around us, our needs, and our desires. Supposedly, as we get older, we are supposed to grow out of that, we go to college, we get a job and we become more aware of other people and their needs and wants and how our choices effect them. We learn to exist outside the influence of ourselves. David Foster Wallace is not putting this forth as a new idea in his address to the graduates of Kenyan College, but rather taking something that countless people have already talked about and putting forth a new way of getting there. He chooses to highlight the importance of the journey rather than tout the benefits of the end result.
While our minds may be hard wired to think of ourselves first, doing as Wallace says and teaching ones self how to think differently is possible. Some people do not believe it is possible for us to overcome our selfishness without the ability to actually experience the world outside ourselves, but I would like to challenge that. In being conscious of the different ways of thinking, and even just in recognizing when one is being selfish, we are moving ourselves forwards. Just because college is over for these students doesn't mean they are done learning, and that is what Wallace is trying to say. It is not about the end result of thinking outside the self, it is about being conscious of the way you think, and in looking at things in different ways. It is the gradual awakening that is the journey, the exploration outside the self. There is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, just the experience of the rainbow.