The Power of Awareness

Let me start with a small story. Two young fish are swimming, and they meet an older fish going the other way. The older fish says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” The two young fish swim on for a bit, then one turns to the other and says, “What the hell is water?”

This little story reminds us that sometimes the most important things are the hardest to see and talk about. We often miss what’s right in front of us, just because it’s so obvious.

Now, I’m supposed to talk about your college education and what it means. You’ve probably heard that it teaches you “how to think.” Maybe that sounds annoying, like someone saying you don’t already know how to think. But here’s the truth: learning how to think really means learning how to choose what to think about.

Let me tell you another story. Two men are at a bar in Alaska. One is religious, the other is not. They argue about God. The atheist says, “I even tried praying once! I was lost in a snowstorm and prayed for help. And you know what happened? Two Eskimos came by and led me back. It was just luck.”

The point is, two people can have the same experience but interpret it completely differently. What we believe shapes how we see the world. And often, we don’t realize that we choose how we see things.

This brings me to something very important: Most of us think we are the center of the universe. It’s natural. Everything in your life is experienced from your point of view. But if we don’t learn to see beyond this, life becomes small and frustrating.

Real education helps us notice what’s going on around us—and inside us. It helps us choose what to focus on. It gives us the power to decide what something means, instead of just reacting.

Let me give a real-life example. Imagine you’ve had a long day at work. You’re tired. You go to the grocery store, and it’s crowded. Everyone seems slow and rude. The cashier looks dead inside. The parking lot is awful. You feel miserable.

But here’s the thing: You can choose to see things differently. Maybe the lady who’s rude is just having a terrible day. Maybe the man in the big SUV is rushing his sick child to the hospital. Maybe the cashier is working a second job to support her family. We don’t know. But we can choose what story we tell ourselves.

This isn’t about being nice or moral. It’s about choosing what kind of life you want to live. If you always think the worst about others, you’ll always feel angry and alone. But if you practice seeing people kindly, you might find some peace.

This power to choose your thoughts is real freedom. Not freedom in the sense of doing whatever you want, but the deeper kind—freedom to live a meaningful life.

Because here’s a strange truth: Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. If you worship money, you’ll never have enough. If you worship beauty, you’ll always feel ugly. If you worship power, you’ll always feel afraid. If you worship being smart, you’ll always feel like a fraud.

These kinds of worship are dangerous because they are unconscious. You don’t even realize you’re doing it. You just slide into them, day after day.

The world around us encourages this. Our culture often tells us that we are the center of everything. But that leads to a life that’s empty and lonely. We end up trapped in our own thoughts, always wanting more, never satisfied.

So the most important lesson today is simple, but not easy: Stay awake. Be aware. Pay attention. Choose how you think. Choose what you give meaning to. That’s what a real education is about.

This is water.