It All Comes Back to Choices

When I read Wallace's commencement address, I thought he was tying to impress upon the graduating class that they had a choice to make.

People are selfish, no doubt about that. The majority of the day is spent worrying about ourselves, how one event or another impacts us personally. That is human nature, and theoretically we can't fault one another for our self-centeredness.

But life isn't theoretical; it's emotional and selfish. The reality is that we are the first to pass judgment on another selfish person, when ironically our reasons for doing so are selfish in and of themselves.

It's a cycle that doesn't end, unless each individual person makes an honest effort to try, even once a day, to put another person before themselves.

I agree with Wallace's interpretation of a liberal arts education, that it's "not so much about filling you up with knowledge as it is about 'teaching you how to think'." Colleges do their best to prepare each student for success in a particular field, and once in a while there is some team building and leadership thrown in, but that's where it ends. Upon graduation day, each person is prepared to take on the challenges of game design or social work, but what about the day-to-day stuff, all those things that can't be taught in a classroom?

The fact is that while a good majority of a person's day will be spent in a work environment with the same people, all those people are so incredibly different: different personalities, different job requirements, different home lives, different backgrounds and educations and likes and dislikes. The list could go on forever, but the point is that no matter how much money you pay for your education, colleges don't teach you how to deal with so many different people. It is something that a person can get only through experience, and that is where the choice comes in.

"Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience" (Wallace 3). Life is about choices, and you will always be playing a game of chance because it is never clear what the consequences of certain choices will be. However, Wallace goes on to talk about the "day in day out" of adulthood, and defends the selfishness that overcomes a person in the routineness of everyday life.

It's easier to be horrified by a woman yelling at her child in the grocery store than it is to imagine that the same woman is at the end of her rope because of a cancer-ridden husband. It's easier to be frustrated at the monstrous Hummers that impede the flow of traffic than it is to imagine a terror-stricken father hurrying to get his sick son or daughter to the hospital with time working against him.

But what's the point of easy? It's like living a life without any excitement or adventure because it's simpler and safer to go with the flow. How boring would that be?

Life isn't easy, and I think Wallace is trying to warn the graduates of that fact, but simultaneously is trying to encourage them not to fear the challenges that lie ahead. Just because college is over doesn't mean the learning has stopped. But just as with any kind of education, it isn't the degree you receive, but what you do with it that makes all the difference.

Turn off the default settings and take the initiative to create your own, because "the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings" (Wallace 6). We live in a selfish society, and so many people talk about changing it but never have the courage to do it. Why couldn't it be a member of this graduating class of 2005 that begins to make a change? Why can't it be one of us, the class of 2015, that chooses to make a difference?

At the end of his address, Wallace states the following: "It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out" (Wallace 6). Make the choice to take the challenge. Stay aware. Think selflessly instead of selfishly. I believe it will make a big impact on individual people, which means that inadvertently, selflessness does benefit the selfish.

Doesn't that make it easy? If it's something you can do for yourself that improves who you are and simultaneously makes the world easier to deal with, why not?

It seems like a no-brainer to me.