With the speech This is Water we are able to be inspired by what Wallace is saying, but also see his own insights on the topic at hand. To fully understand we have to question all the aspects of the speech itself. Let us start with a simple one: What is Wallace saying? This is a question with varying answers because everyone is going to feel differently on the subject. From a personal point of view I take away that Wallace is telling us to live an optimistic life. But, what does that mean? In general I believe Wallace sums it up with the sentence “ … to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default-setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially