Mindy Kaling opens up about life as a single mom in Dartmouth commencement speech
Mindy Kaling just wowed the crowd in her Dartmouth commencement speech by discussing what it’s really like to be a single mom.
We already loved — and thought we knew everything about — Mindy Kaling. But this talented actress/comedian/writer just amazed us even more by opening up about her life as a single mom. Kaling’s honest discussion took place during her Dartmouth College commencement speech over the weekend.
Mindy recently embellished her already impressive professional resume with a role in Ocean’s 8. But the 38-year-old has enhanced her reputation on a personal level by talking about her experience as a single parent to her daughter, Katherine.
Life as a first-time mom: It’s not like in the movies
Speaking to graduates at her own alma mater Kaling recalled bringing her baby home after her daughter’s birth. Alone with the infant in her house, Mindy reflected on all those films and TV shows that portray a doting grandmother and besotted first-time daddy sharing the experience.
“I looked around and I had neither [my own mom nor a husband],” said Kaling. “For a moment it was kind of scary, like, ‘Can I do this by myself?'”
But Mindy’s fears ended when she realized that she did have support in her new role as a single mom. “The reality is, I’m not doing it by myself,” added the actress. “I’m surrounded by family and friends who love and support me.”
About that post-college bucket list
Got a list of post-graduate goals or a bucket list that hasn’t exactly achieved completion? Kaling feels you. And she used the commencement speech as an opportunity to share that in terms of her own post-college goals list, she achieved exactly one item: Have children. But now that she’s a single mom, Mindy has no regrets, and she urged graduates to let go of any post-graduate to-do goals that they don’t achieve.
"The joy that I feel from being with my daughter, Katherine, eclipses anything from any crazy check list. 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."
Kaling also offered a refreshingly honest insight about how she felt in becoming a mother without having first become a wife. Although Mindy said she “didn’t think [she’d] have a child before [she] got married,” that’s precisely what happened. And she also shared that she “wouldn’t change a thing.”
Mindy Kaling’s advice to guys and gals
During her speech to the audience of new college graduates, the Mindy Project star had words of wisdom for the men. Mindy sought to raise male awareness by recommending that men behave “as if every woman you’re talking to is a reporter for an online publication that you are scared of.” Ultimately, men should “date like everyone’s watching, because we are,” she added.
Kaling also offered some tips for the women, urging the “girls” to “do a better job of supporting each other.” The actress put in a plug for her new film as she pointed out that “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 8!”
Related Story: Celebrities who inspire with graduation commencement speeches in 2018
You can watch Kaling’s entire speech down below, and hopefully you’ll be feeling just as inspired as these new grads: