Islam Meligi
English 1A
Richard Compean Ph.D.
Sep 10, 2015
Kenyon Commencement Summary
It’s well known that most of the commencements that are held after four or more of hard working years will congratulates the graduates for being successful and show them the value of the degree that they are about to receive. Wallance considered the day of the graduation as a start, not an end, for a new life that he referred to by “day in day out” term. He focused about giving the fresh and new people to the real world some tips in order to help them dealing with the reality in the world that no one can see easily. Math, science and all other subjects that they got in school teach them how to think, how to solve a problem how to think about what’s inside themselves, but they do not teach them what to think about during a regular day in the up coming boring and hard life that they almost face.
Being in the shoes of a speaker in a graduation speech looks too hard to decide to give an advice for people who feel that they are unique and have no need to get an advice from anyone to show them what to do and how to think. They have already achieved a big mission by themselves and they know exactly what to do in their life. Wallance avoided being in that position by confirming more than twice that he will not take the wisdom position, but he will explain something that he just did experience it before them, not because he knows more. He declared that in order to minimize the gap between the speaker and the audience and solve the argument of insulting the audience for teaching them how to think.
By giving out two short suggestive stories, Wallace tries to express the opinion of hoping the audience to raise the level of daily awareness and to think properly and differently. In the first story, the two young fish don’t even know what water is when the big fish asked, “How’s the water”. Wallace is saying that don’t be like the two young fishes who ignore the surroundings, which he referred in his later speech about the “natural default settings”. If we just use our default settings to think in our daily life, we cannot even aware the simple realities and truth around us. And then, the second story is a conversation between a religious person and an atheist. After surviving in a terrible blizzard, the atheist still doesn’t believe in the existence of God. Because he prayed to God, it turned out to be two Eskimos who helped him. If the religious person were in the same situation, he would definitely believe in God more. That’s why the religious guy had a shock when he realized that the atheist is still atheist. Same experience makes different people think so differently, and Wallace suggests adjusting the “default settings” in order to free to think.