5 Lessons For Law School Graduates From Mindy Kaling’s Dartmouth Commencement Speech

“This is America / Don’t catch you slipping now / Look how I’m living now / Police be tripping now.” – Childish Gambino

Last Sunday, Mindy Kaling (01’ Dartmouth College) delivered the commencement speech to her alma mater’s newest class of graduates. You may be familiar with Kaling from The Office (as Kelly Kapoor) or the show she created and starred in, The Mindy Project (as Mindy Lahiri).

As an Asian American, I view Kaling both as a representative role model and a true traiblazer. Ever since her much meme’d line: “Yeah, I have a lot of questions. Number one: How dare you?” from The Office, she has been an inspiration.

At the time she was starring in The Office, there was very little representation of Asians on television and in Hollywood generally. Not much has changed (see here, here, here, and here) since she has gone on to bloom in her acting career. As someone who refuses to be typecast as a traditional Indian or play a token role, Kaling continues to carry the torch for many of us in the audience.

Anyone familiar with Kaling’s work knows how moving she is as a storyteller. And as one of the most entertaining people in Hollywood, her commencement speech fittingly killed it. After watching Kaling’s performance at Dartmouth, her speech instantly became my favorite one during this graduation season.

Although her advice was tailored to undergraduates at her alma mater, I believe it also serves to provide pertinent, practical, and topical wisdom for this year’s law school graduates. Without further ado, here are five lessons for law school graduates from her speech last Sunday:

1. On your résumé:

First off, remove ‘Proficient at Word’ from your résumé. That is ridiculous. You’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel of competency there. This is how you become proficient at Word: You open Word on your computer.

2. On self-confidence and success:

You need to be your own cheerleader now, because there isn’t a room full of people waiting with pom‑poms to tell you, ‘You did it! We’ve been waiting all this time for you to succeed!’

I’m giving you permission to root for yourself. And while you’re at it, root for those around you, too. It took me a long time to realize that success isn’t a zero-sum game.

3. On women supporting each other:

Hey girls, we need to do a better job of supporting each other. I know that I am guilty of it too. We live in a world where it seems like there’s only room for one of us at the table. So when another woman shows up, we think, ‘Oh my god, she’s going to take the one woman spot! That was supposed to be mine!’ But that’s just what certain people want us to do!

Wouldn’t it be better if we worked together to dismantle a system that makes us feel like there’s limited room for us? Because when women work together, we can accomplish anything. Even stealing the world’s most expensive diamond necklace from the Met Gala, like in Ocean’s 8, a movie starring me, which opens in theaters June 8th. And to that end, women, don’t be ashamed to toot your own horn like I just did.

4. On our master plans:

I will tell you a personal story. After my daughter was born in December, I remember bringing her home and being in my house with her for the first time and thinking, ‘Huh. According to movies and TV, this is traditionally the time when my mother and spouse are supposed to be here, sharing this experience with me.’ And I looked around, and I had neither. And for a moment, it was kind of scary. Like, ‘Can I do this by myself?’

But then, that feeling went away, because the reality is, I’m not doing it by myself. I’m surrounded by family and friends who love and support me. And the joy I feel from being with my daughter Katherine eclipses anything from any crazy checklist.

So I just want to tell you guys, don’t be scared if you don’t do things in the right order, or if you don’t do some things at all. I didn’t think I’d have a child before I got married, but hey, it turned out that way, and I wouldn’t change a thing. I didn’t think I’d have dessert before breakfast today, but hey, it turned out that way and I wouldn’t change a thing.

5. On asking the right questions:

I was not someone who should have the life I have now, and yet I do. I was sitting in the chair you are literally sitting in right now and I just whispered, ‘Why not me?’ And I kept whispering it for seventeen years; and here I am, someone that this school deemed worthy enough to speak to you at your commencement.

Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something, but especially not yourself. Go conquer the world. Just remember this: Why not you? You made it this far.

If you have seventeen minutes available, I highly recommend you check out the video of her commencement speech. Or you can simply read the transcript.

Finally, to echo one of the last ideas Mindy Kaling left her audience to grasp:

You’re graduating into a world where it seems like everything is falling apart. Trust in institutions are at a record low; the truth doesn’t seem to matter anymore…

Class of 2018, you are entering a world that we have toppled like a Jenga tower, and we are relying on you to rebuild it.

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Renwei Chung is the Diversity Columnist at Above the Law. You can contact Renwei by email at [email protected], follow him on Twitter (@renweichung), or connect with him on LinkedIn.