After reading and listening to the speech that David Foster Wallace gave I was able to connect to his words, break it down and try to apply his main points to my present life. As far as DFW's idea that life consist of fundamental choices that lie entirely within the human person and allow them to engage the world differently, I believe that it is a view point that is very true but is not noticed by many including myself in society today. Society as well as myself are not able to grasp this concept for the most part because we are so busy being unconscious and not thinking in the right ways. We are stuck on being on our default. Our default is the thought that we are the center of the universe and that our immediate feelings and needs are what should determine the worlds priorities.
     So in respect to fundamental choices that are dependable on the human person and how because of that each human person engages in the world differently is totally true. This is because the same exact experience can happen to two people but can still mean two different things to each individual. More over because each individual has a different ways of constructing or coming up with their meaning due to their different experiences with that particular issue. There have been times in my life where my sisters and I have gone through the same experience but handle it completely different. And I think its ok to conclude that we all reacted differently because of prior experiences that have formed certain beliefs or mindsets in our head.
     I would love to try my hardest to think in the right ways as David Foster Wallace explains to us in his commencement speech. To think in a way that calls a lot from me. Some of these being to be a little less arrogant. Also to have a little critical awareness about my self and my certainties because most of the time the things i tend to be certain about are the things that end up being totally wrong for me. More over I want to learn how to exercise some control over how or what I think, being conscious and aware enough to choose how I construct meaning from experience. At the end of the day I want to be seen as someone who is well-adjusted or someone who has learned and has equipped themselves to fight our default setting and get to consciously decide what has meaning and what does not.
     I believe that when DFW is being ironic and those in the audience respond by clapping or even laughing they are hiding. Hiding from the reality that what DFW is suggesting is exactly how they live their life and want to cover up their embarrassment with clapping and laughter. I also believe they are laughing and clapping because they believe it does not apply to them and they are so oblivious to the truth of his statement. It helps to bring to light the issue DFW brings up, blind certainty. Those at the commencement ceremony have a close mindedness that amounts to an imprisonment so total that the ones enslaved do not even realize it.
    Ultimately from David Foster Wallace's speech I have been able to learn so much about life and the way I should think. I understand now that its not the capacity to think but the choice of what to think about. And life before death has nothing to do with knowledge but awareness. Which leads to freedom, and freedom is an attention, awareness, discipline and being able to really care about other people and sacrifice for them. Also I realized that if we worship our default settings such as money, beauty and power they will consume us and kill us way before we are physically put to rest. Taking all these factors into account I know it will be hard to be conscious and get out of those default settings because the most obvious important realities are often the ones hardest to fulfill and live out. Even so it is now my job to be less arrogant and stop being unconscious because it is then that I will know I have other options than just conforming to our defaults.