Kaling closed her speech with this deeply personal revelation, dropping the comedy that had defined the rest of her address. She told graduates that she arrived at Dartmouth without the background or connections that would predict her eventual success — a daughter of Indian immigrants who studied playwriting and went on to write, produce, and star in hit television shows. The power of her message was in its simplicity: she didn't have a grand plan, she just kept asking herself that one question, 'Why not me?', until the answer became her life.