Kaling says she learned this after being told to dive off a high diving board by a lifeguard when she was six. She did so and cut open her leg. "[My parents] didn't ever tell me, 'Sometimes you will meet idiots who are technically adults and authority figures,' " Kaling says of the lifeguard. " 'You can calmly say, "Can I first call my mom and ask if I have to do this, please?" ' But we didn't have cell phones back then. The only people with cell phones were rich villains in action movies you knew were going to die first."
