The phrase "this is water" originates from David Foster Wallace's famous commencement speech titled "This Is Water," delivered at Kenyon College in 2005. The phrase highlights the idea that the most obvious and ubiquitous realities in life are often the hardest to see and talk about, much like water is invisible to fish immersed in it. The speech uses a metaphor of two young fish who don't initially understand what water is because it is all around them constantly. Wallace's message is about awareness—the real value of education being the ability to recognize and see what is so real and essential, hidden in plain sight in everyday life. This awareness helps overcome the default setting of unconsciousness and the automatic biases in adult existence. In summary, "this is water" encourages mindfulness and conscious awareness of life’s realities that are often taken for granted or overlooked.
