Taylor Swift delivers NYU commencement address after receiving honorary doctorate
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."
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"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."
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