Rashida Jones talks frozen yogurt, naps, and Malia Obama in Harvard Class Day speech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3gEd2JQtRo

During her Class Day speech to Harvard’s soon-to-be graduates Wednesday, Rashida Jones recalled a formative time during her sophomore year at the college — the day a frozen yogurt machine was installed in the cafeteria. The actress, most known for her roles on Parks and Recreation and The Office, then read a quote she gave to the student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson.

“It provides automatic gratification,” Jones told The Crimson in 1995. “All you have to do is pull down the lever.”

She then looked out to Harvard Yard, where the class of 2016 sat with their families.

“All you have to do in life is pull down the lever,” she said, then paused.

“Just kidding.”

Class Day is a program meant to celebrate the undergraduate class on the day before commencement, and Harvard seniors have invited a speaker since 1968. Jones is the first “second generation” speaker, as her father Quincy Jones delivered the Class Day address just prior to her graduation in 1997.

“I am the only second generation class day speaker at Harvard in the history of mankind,” she said. “It’s a huge accomplishment. Hopefully, one of you graduates is my illegitimate child and will be up here speaking in 20 years. Just kidding, I don’t have kids.”

She did, however, say that she took advantage of all the best Harvard had to offer during her time on campus. That meant quick power naps in the theater, “impressive zzzs” in the library, and falling asleep “being anywhere near the science center.”

“I know you may be sad to be leaving college, and you should be,” she said. “But if you’re lucky, your memories will follow you.”

Jones then switched gears and said that she felt it was her responsibility to tell the graduates something meaningful before they set foot into the real world.

“America loves an underdog, and you are not underdogs,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if your application was a sob story, or if you were the first person in your family to graduate college. No one cares because now you’re Harvard graduates. You’re overdogs. Get used to it.”

The actress also said everyone would assume the graduates went to college with Malia Obama, who recently declared that she’d attend the school in 2017 after taking a gap year.

“Even though you just missed her, you better start preparing your stories now,” she said.

She did leave the graduates with three important pieces of advice: don’t count on the system, protect your instinct to care, and choose love.

“You got here because you’re a rule follower, but the real world doesn’t reward rule followers the way the educational world does,” she said. “You’re the only one who can create a system that’s going to work for you, and that needs to start right now.”

Then, after encouraging students to use their voices to speak out about their beliefs and be “louder than the loudest troll on the internet,” Jones left the class of 2016 with one final piece of advice.

“Pull down that lever,” she said. “Get your froyo.”