David Foster Wallace opened his now-legendary commencement address — later published as 'This Is Water' — with a parable: two young fish swim along, meet an older fish who says 'Morning, boys, how's the water?' and one young fish turns to the other and asks, 'What the hell is water?' Wallace immediately disclaimed the role of wise older fish, but the parable set up the speech's central argument: the most fundamental aspects of our experience are precisely the ones we're least equipped to notice. The 'This Is Water' speech has become arguably the most famous commencement address ever delivered, transcribed, published as a book, and animated into a short film. Its power comes from Wallace's refusal to offer easy inspiration. Instead, he described the grinding reality of adult life — the supermarket after work, the traffic, the petty frustrations — and argued that the only freedom worth having is the freedom to choose how you think about these experiences. Wallace was 43 when he delivered this speech and was struggling with severe depression. Three years later, he would take his own life. This biographical fact has given the speech a devastating retrospective weight, but its insights stand independent of his biography. The observation that obvious realities are the hardest to see is both a statement about consciousness and a warning about the difficulty of maintaining awareness.