Just call her Dr. Taylor Swift.
Swift received an honorary doctorate from New York University on Wednesday and delivered a commencement address, during which she joked the "main reason I'm here is because I have a song called '22.'" The pop star noted she was excited to be wearing a cap and gown for the first time because she never attended college.
During her speech, Swift offered graduates a few "life hacks," telling them they "get to pick what your life has time and room for" and shouldn't "[hide] your enthusiasm for things."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Never be ashamed of trying," she added. "Effortlessness is a myth."
Swift urged the class of 2022 to also "learn to live alongside cringe" because "no matter how hard you try to avoid being cringe, you will look back on your life and cringe retrospectively." She went on to reflect on some of the failures she's experienced in her career — including "getting canceled on the internet" — which she said taught her that mistakes don't equal failure.
"You will screw it up sometimes," she concluded. "So will I. And when I do, you will most likely read about it on the internet! Hard things will happen to us. We will recover. We will learn from it. We will grow more resilient because of it."
Swift has said for years she hoped to one day get an honorary degree, so she thanked NYU for making her "technically, on paper at least, a doctor."
-
AI workslop is muddying the American workplaceThe explainer Using AI may create more work for others
-
Japan poised to get first woman prime ministerSpeed Read The ruling Liberal Democratic Party elected former Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi
-
The 5 best mob movies of all timeThe Week Recommends If you don’t like a good gangster flick, just fuhgeddaboudit
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
