Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Kaling was successful in college and participated in plays and the student newspaper. After college, she moved to New York City with two of her friends, Jocelyn and Brenda. The three young women shared a small apartment and struggled to begin their careers.

Kaling visited the local Barnes & Noble and sat in the aisle, reading books about how to become a successful television writer and actor. Kaling only attended one audition while living in New York, for a musical titled Bombay Dreams. Although she passed the singing audition, she did poorly at the second audition for dancing.

While waiting in the writer’s room to work on a script for The Office, Kaling’s mind wanders to fame and how much fame she would like to have. Growing up, she idealized Conan O’Brien and admired his job when she interned for him at 19: “Nobody cared what he wore (some kind of dark-colored suit), his hair was famously always the same, and he got to sit at the same desk every episode” (58).

Kaling structures the rest of the chapter as a detailed list of the qualities of fame she hopes she one day achieves. For example, she hopes that she will reach a level of fame that enables her to skip lines at brunch and avoid going to jail.