At first, from reading the title I thought it
was going to be another cliche, my struggle and victory kind of speech since it’s
a commencement speech and mostly that’s how all speeches go if I am not mistaken.
Another thought is, to try to convince an audience that graduating with a
liberal arts degree is nothing to be ashamed of, or go on a rant about being a
liberal arts graduate. As I read the
speech, I was mistaken. I really enjoyed the reading because of the truth that
David Wallace wrote. David emphasizes greatly on two subjects: freedom and how
you perceive life. You really do chose on how you want to live out your life,
and the outcome of it. The education that the professors provide is part of the stepping stone into what you want to make your life out of.
David explains in his speech on how society
has become self-centered, and arrogant. I do agree with Wallace, society has
morphed into an “it’s all about me” way of thinking. We are humans and how he
stated in his speech, “it is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at
birth.” Now, I can see how David’s definition of freedom makes so much sense
now. You really do fall into a life of monotony
if one doesn't change up their way of thinking and routine. How you perceive life deeply
affects your outcome of it. What I mean by that is for example, being optimistic.
A positive thought really impacts the rest of your day.
Maria I agree with you because in “Kenyon Commencement Speech” by David Wallace he exemplifies the importance of being open minded and having awareness throughout life. He chooses these ideas as part of his graduations speech because I believe he knows that this will occur in the average person’s lifetime. It affects me because I’ am currently a student as well and I am in a new environment that I must adjust to since I have never really been away from home without my family. I was able to strongly relate to his speech because I had to choose the option to think of this new step in life as lonely and miserable or as diverse and fresh; the beginning to finding who I am on my own. Wallace presents himself as a liberal guy with much experience in life. He has a great variety of how to look at things in life. He views his audience as being in a similar position he is in or may have already been in and the group of people that may feel excluded from his speech may be the people that a very arrogant and narrow minded. I strongly agree with David Wallace because I feel like being a student myself thoughts like his come across my mind one in a while. And in reality most of us human beings are actually self-centered because we do naturally only think of ourselves. Taking extra time in our daily lives would be complex since I am sure most of us are not used to it but I believe as Wallace says, it would greatly reduce the stress we naturally bring upon ourselves and free us from feeling so tense.
ReplyDeleteby: Viany Montes
I agree completely with you because yes commencement speeches are all usually clichés and David Wallace does a great job at telling the graduates that a liberal arts degree is nothing to be ashamed of because you are doing what you love and are passionate about compared to something that will stress you out every day of your life. He explains the importance of being an opened minded person and having awareness throughout your life. He chooses these ideas because he knows that this will occur in their lifetimes at some point and he wants to make sure they know what they are about to face in the real world. Wallace seems like a very liberal guy with lots of experience in his life. He views his audience as being in a similar position he is in or may have already been in and the group of people that may feel excluded from his speech may be the people that are very arrogant and narrow minded. And in reality as human beings we do naturally think of ourselves a lot and not anybody else because we have just evolved that way in society. As a student myself I do think about reality after college, about going into the working life, and Wallace's view is really helpful and witty because what he said does actually happen at some point in life and for him to be so up front about it to all the graduates is great because all he is doing is telling us the truth and not a bunch of clichés that usual commencement speeches do. This speech really opened up my mind more about my life and the future. David Wallace brought meaningful knowledge to the speech that will help us all on our journey in our lifetime.
ReplyDeleteI like how Wallace was able to make his speech relatable and meaningful to all sorts of people whether or not they were the people graduating. He did it by coming up with examples of what many of us have already encountered in the real world. Those being us being in situations we have little or no control over. Like being stuck in a checkout line at the grocery store. He says that our natural hardwired way of thinking causes us to respond negatively because of our wants and needs that we are always trying to satisfy. In this case getting out of the store as quickly with as little difficulty as possible. That’s often not always possible in day to day life though, so he says the way to handle it is to choose how we perceive what is happening. It is easy to say but he tells the audience that even though he knows this and tries to apply it to his everyday life even he sometimes fails just because he doesn’t have the motivation. I think he is saying that if you do manage to apply it to your life you will find much value in both living and understanding and not forgetting the water. It makes him seem really human.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about his speech being partly about freedom, how you perceive life’s challenges, and how our society has gotten so self centered. We can either be slaves to our minds desires or we can try to rise up above this and make the conscious choice to understand why we value the things we do in life and decide what is worth changing.