Who Are You Really Sitting Next To?

"and that some of these people probably have much harder, more tedious or painful lives than I do overall."

 The majority of David Foster Wallace's speech, titled "This Is Water", is about compassion. I see compassion as an underrated and overlooked piece of what life is really about, as did Wallace. Personally, I related to his speech on many levels. Not only do I struggle with getting off of that "default-setting", as Wallace put it, but I also try very hard to think of other people when I'm annoyed.

The reality, especially in a competitive district like Troy, is that when my friend is complaining about her A-minus on a test in a way that would suggest it's the legitimate end of the world, it really is to her. Because she's going to go home and get an hour long lecture from her parents, and she's going to beat herself up forever because she KNOWS she could have done better if she had just spent a few more minutes studying, and it's all going to seem like the worst thing that could ever happen. And my job is, as her friend, to listen. To put myself in her position, to remind myself of all the times I HAVE been in her position, and to realize that many of my friends don't know what it is about my past that makes me itch when they complain about their A-minuses. Just as I don't know what it is about their past that makes them strive for A-pluses. I need to see them in a positive light for being ambitious. I need to learn from that ambition.

I love Troy, because being around the people I grew up with has made me into a more ambitious person, and a compassionate person as well. One may not expect things like compassion to be a result of growing up in one of the nation's most competitive districts, but then again, they don't know what it's like to grow up here. Wallace's speech is a great one because it applies to everyone, everywhere. Everyone can better themselves by walking in their incredibly annoying neighbor's shoes for a day. Everyone can benefit from asking themselves who they are really sitting next to in class.