The Office writer and costar Mindy Kaling has a new book coming out in November, and based on exerpts that have hit the internet, I think it will quickly find its way to my collection.
Titled 'Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns,' Kaling writes about friendship, boys and other life tangents in a casual, conversational tone that makes her sound like a real friend.
She opens the book with a short essay about why you don't want to peak in high school.
Teenage girls, please don’t worry about being super popular in high school, or being the best actress in high school, or the best athlete. Not only do people not care about any of that the second you graduate, but when you get older, if you reference your successes in high school too much, it actually makes you look kind of pitiful, like some babbling old Tennessee Williams character with nothing going on in their current life. What I’ve noticed is that no one who was a big star in high school is also a big star later in life, except athletes. For us overlooked kids, it’s so wonderfully fair.
I was never the lead in the play. I don’t think I went to a single party with alcohol at it. No one shared pot with me. It wasn’t until I was sixteen that I even knew marijuana and pot were the same thing.
Because I was largely ignored at school, I watched everyone like an observant weirdo, not unlike Eugene Levy’s character Dr. Allan Pearl, from Waiting for Guffman, who famously “sat next tothe class clown, and studied him. But I did that with everyone. It has helped me so much as a writer you have no idea.
I just want ambitious teenagers to know it is totally fine to be quiet, observant kids. Besides being a delight to your parents, you will find you have plenty of time later to catch up . . . Sit next to the class clown and study him. Then grow up, take everything you learn, and get paid to be a real-life clown, unlike whatever unexciting thing the actual high school class clown is doing now. I think our class clown is doing marketing in Warwick, Connecticut.
Forget teenage girls, I'm pretty sure Mindy just described my high school experience.
More online excerpts include Mindy's take on men's style, best friend rights and responsibilities and non-traumatic things that have made her cry.
Click here to ch-check out those excerpts in full, and look out for the book come November!