Wallace's Graduation Speech: The Meaningless Of Life

Imagine a game of chess: there are pieces, players, and a board. What controls how the game plays out? The players do, not the board or the pieces. For most of my life, I was not the player; I was the piece. The choice to do what I want was not a viable option for my past self. That changed, however. Wallace’s commencement speech explores freedom and default thinking. Freedom is a construct of the mind; to actualize it, one must believe in the choice of free will.

After reading Wallace’s speech, I realized that it affected me greatly due to it’s familiarity. Mainly, because it implies that life is meaningless, reminding me all too well of my past. I became aware of the possibility of the meaningless of life at a young, vulnerable age, specifically

Or so I imagined. One opinion had stayed constant, however, a state of unease about life in general. I started to question existence itself. Being an atheist did not help. How can life have any meaning if there is no God? I want to believe in a meaningful life, but it is hard to find a reason. It is my view that most people need faith because facing the other, possible reality of a meaningless life is too painful to acknowledge. In other words, “important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about (Wallace, 1).” But, alas, religious zealots might be onto something. In my view, aside from the absurdity of believing in a divinity that had no real, concrete evidence, I realize some of these religious people surely questioned their faith at one point and still choose to continue in their beliefs. Now, I don’t think I’ll jump in my car and drive to a church in hopes of finding the meaning of life. But, I know that I have that choice. I have the free will to see life how I want to see it. That is

I see what the latest problem is on the news, the advertisements that imply how you should live your life, and the laws upon laws that bind us to the “justice” system. Before, as a Marine, I supposedly had protected freedom during deployments only to return, to the land of the free, to witness the sad truth that we are not as liberated as we think we are because of society’s expectations restraining us. Our nation was built on the premise that all humans have “unalienable rights”: Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are the main ones. Looking around, I do not recognize people that are unrestricted. Debt, mortgages, loans, etc. control how we live our lives; I, too, am not exempt from these binds. It is plain to take in that I am restricted so long as I am tied to these superficial means of