Multi-millionaire Taylor Swift tells NYU students to shake off life's hardships as she delivers commencement address at New York's iconic Yankee stadium

  • The star, 32, attended the New York University's commencement ceremony at the Yankee Stadium Wednesday
  • She was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts degree, having left school aged 17 to go straight into the music business
  • Swift gave a well-received speech where she urged her fellow graduates to embrace life's embarrassments 
  • Ceremony honored the graduates of 2022 due to prior COVID restrictions 

Advertisement

Taylor Swift urged students to embrace their mistakes and cringe-inducing embarrassments as she gave a commencement speech after receiving an honorary doctorate of fine arts.

Addressing the class of 2022 at New York University's graduation Tuesday, Swift said she wanted to offer graduates some 'life hacks' about life, love and work she wishes she'd previously received.

Swift said: 'The first of which is…life can be heavy, especially if you try to carry it all at once. Part of growing up and moving into new chapters of your life is about catch and release. 

'What I mean by that is, knowing what things to keep, and what things to release. You can’t carry all things, all grudges, all updates on your ex, all enviable promotions your school bully got at the hedge fund his uncle started. 

'Decide what is yours to hold and let the rest go. Oftentimes the good things in your life are lighter anyway, so there’s more room for them. One toxic relationship can outweigh so many wonderful, simple joys. You get to pick what your life has time and room for. Be discerning.'

She continued: 'Secondly, learn to live alongside cringe. No matter how hard you try to avoid being cringe, you will look back on your life and cringe retrospectively. Cringe is unavoidable over a lifetime. Even the term “cringe” might someday be deemed “cringe.”

'I promise you, you’re probably doing or wearing something right now that you will look back on later and find revolting and hilarious. You can’t avoid it, so don’t try to. For example, I had a phase where, for the entirety of 2012, I dressed like a 1950s housewife. But you know what? I was having fun. Trends and phases are fun. Looking back and laughing is fun.

'And while we’re talking about things that make us squirm but really shouldn’t, I’d like to say that I’m a big advocate for not hiding your enthusiasm for things. It seems to me that there is a false stigma around eagerness in our culture of “unbothered ambivalence.'

Swift also offered advice on relationships, hinting that her romances and subsequent break-ups with stars including Harry Styles, Tom Hiddleston and Calvin Harris had been a hard learning curve.

She said: 'Having the world treat my love life like a spectator sport in which I lose every single game was not a great way to date in my teens and twenties, but it taught me to protect my private life fiercely. 

'Being publicly humiliated over and over again at a young age was excruciatingly painful but it forced me to devalue the ridiculous notion of minute by minute, ever fluctuating social relevance and likability.'

The singer continued: 'Getting canceled on the internet and nearly losing my career gave me an excellent knowledge of all the types of wine.'

Swift also offered insight into the failures she'd suffered, including being left out by friends at school, and told by music industry executives that she was too young to write and sing heart-rending country songs.

But she said it was those disappointments that had steeled her on and helped her write the music that turned her into a megastar.

Taylor Swift is seen delivering the NYU commencement ceremony at the Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree, having left school to enter the music industry instead of attending college 

This is the moment Taylor Swift received her honorary degree at NYU's graduation ceremony at the Yankee Stadium Wednesday

This is the moment Taylor Swift received her honorary degree at NYU's graduation ceremony at the Yankee Stadium Wednesday

Referencing her glittering career at the start of her speech, she added: 'Last time I was in a stadium this size, I was dancing in heels and wearing a glittery leotard. This outfit is much more comfortable.'

Swift thanked her parents and brother Austin for supporting her dreams, and urged all other graduates to show gratitude to whoever had helped them on their way, or remember them if they'd since died.  

Continuing with her philosophical theme, she added: 'The scary news is, you are on your own now, but the cool news is, you're on your own now.'

The superstar also cracked a modest joke during her eloquent speech, saying: 'I'm 90% sure I was invited because I have a song called "22".'

 The Red pop star did not attend college, instead going straight into the music business aged 17 after graduating high school a year early. 

Wednesday's ceremony was a super-sized one that honored the graduates of 2020, 2021 and 2022. Previous years' graduates had their commencement ceremonies axed because of COVID safety rules.  

She urged students to think of whoever had cared for them as a child, and answered all their questions growing up, however ridiculous. The music icon suggested students should think of a way to thank that person if they were in the crowd with them, or remember them if they've since died.  

'Wearing a cap and gown for the very first time - see you soon NYU,' the crooner wrote in an Instagram post as she was seen heading to Yankee Stadium in New York where the event will take place. 

Swift appeared chuffed after being given a scarf to commemorate her doctor of fine arts degree

Swift appeared chuffed after being given a scarf to commemorate her doctor of fine arts degree

Swift gave a wave to the crowd as she picked up a paper copy of her honorary degree on Wednesday

Swift gave a wave to the crowd as she picked up a paper copy of her honorary degree on Wednesday 

Taylor Swift is snapped at the Yankee Stadium on Wednesday as she prepared to give the commencement speech to NYU graduates and accept an honorary doctorate in performing arts

Taylor Swift is snapped at the Yankee Stadium on Wednesday as she prepared to give the commencement speech to NYU graduates and accept an honorary doctorate in performing arts 

Taylor was clearly excited to receive her honorary degree at the famous New York City baseball stadium, and was seen pumping the air as she walked across the field

Taylor was clearly excited to receive her honorary degree at the famous New York City baseball stadium, and was seen pumping the air as she walked across the field 

The music icon donned a pair of leopard-print heels for the occasion, and gave a wave as she walked across the baseball diamond

The music icon donned a pair of leopard-print heels for the occasion, and gave a wave as she walked across the baseball diamond 

Taylor is pictured alongside Jason King, who is head of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, and who also delivered a commencement address

Taylor is pictured alongside Jason King, who is head of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, and who also delivered a commencement address 

Swift's excitement was clear to see as she walked to pick up her honorary degree. She urged her fellow graduates to thank whoever had helped guide them through life so far

Swift's excitement was clear to see as she walked to pick up her honorary degree. She urged her fellow graduates to thank whoever had helped guide them through life so far 

Swift was clearly very excited to be graduating as she and her fellow graduates walked towards the stage erected at the iconic New York City baseball stadium

Swift was clearly very excited to be graduating as she and her fellow graduates walked towards the stage erected at the iconic New York City baseball stadium 

Grad girl: Taylor Swift was seen with her cap and gown on in a new social media post

Grad girl: Taylor Swift was seen with her cap and gown on in a new social media post

In the spotlight: The 32-year-old singer-songwriter is set to receive an honorary Doctor Of Fine Arts degree from New York University on Monday. The Red pop star will also address the graduating class at the distinguished school

 In the spotlight: The 32-year-old singer-songwriter is set to receive an honorary Doctor Of Fine Arts degree from New York University on Monday. The Red pop star will also address the graduating class at the distinguished school

Her father Scott Kingsley Swift, 70, took photos posted online as Swift prepared to head to the ceremony. 

The star wore her long blonde hair down with bright red lipstick. The purple and black gown was worn over a black sleeveless dress as she also had on high heels with a fun leopard print.

The honorary degree will be a first for Taylor as her career was well underway from the time she graduated high school. 

Nice kicks: The hit maker also had on high heels with a fun leopard print. Her father Scott Kingsley Swift, 70, took the photo

Nice kicks: The hit maker also had on high heels with a fun leopard print. Her father Scott Kingsley Swift, 70, took the photo

The under look: The purple and black gown was worn over a black sleeveless dress as she also had on

The under look: The purple and black gown was worn over a black sleeveless dress as she also had on

NYU's commencement will acknowledge the 2020, 2021 and 2022 graduating classes, due to the pandemic.

The university announced the upcoming plans in March.

'I cannot overstate how thrilled I am to be coming together in person with graduates, parents, faculty, and honorees for NYU’s Commencement,' NYU president Andrew Hamilton said in a press release.

A closer look: The Bad Blood star wore her long blonde hair down with bright red lipstick

A closer look: The Bad Blood star wore her long blonde hair down with bright red lipstick

Howdy y'all: Later she was seen at Yankee Stadium to deliver the New York University 2022 Commencement Address

Howdy y'all: Later she was seen at Yankee Stadium to deliver the New York University 2022 Commencement Address

'Since 2019, we have been deprived of Commencement’s festive, communal joy, and its absence has been keenly felt.

'Few groups of graduates are more deserving of a celebration than these classes: their pursuit of their studies disrupted, isolated by a daunting pandemic, these classes — 2022, 2021, and 2020 — have distinguished themselves with their grit, grace, and forbearance. 

'We reconvene at Yankee Stadium with a renewed sense of appreciation for the act of celebrating together in person, a recognition of our graduates’ enormous achievements, and a respect for their character and perseverance.'

Taylor Swift's full NYU commencement speech  

Hi, I’m Taylor.

Last time I was in a stadium this size, I was dancing in heels and wearing a glittery leotard. This outfit is much more comfortable.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to NYU‘s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Bill Berkeley and all the trustees and members of the board, NYU’s President Andrew Hamilton, Provost Katherine Fleming, and the faculty and alumni here today who have made this day possible. I feel so proud to share this day with my fellow honorees Susan Hockfield and Felix Matos Rodriguez, who humble me with the ways they improve our world with their work. As for me, I’m…90% sure the main reason I’m here is because I have a song called ‘22’. And let me just say, I am elated to be here with you today as we celebrate and graduate New York University’s Class of 2022.

Not a single one of us here today has done it alone. We are each a patchwork quilt of those who have loved us, those who have believed in our futures, those who showed us empathy and kindness or told us the truth even when it wasn’t easy to hear. Those who told us we could do it when there was absolutely no proof of that. Someone read stories to you and taught you to dream and offered up some moral code of right and wrong for you to try and live by. Someone tried their best to explain every concept in this insanely complex world to the child that was you, as you asked a bazillion questions like, ‘how does the moon work’ and ‘why can we eat salad but not grass.’ And maybe they didn’t do it perfectly. No one ever can. Maybe they aren’t with us anymore, and in that case I hope you’ll remember them today. If they are here in this stadium, I hope you’ll find your own way to express your gratitude for all the steps and missteps that have led us to this common destination.

I know that words are supposed to be my “thing,” but I will never be able to find the words to thank my mom and my dad, and my brother, Austin, for the sacrifices they made every day so that I could go from singing in coffee houses to standing up here with you all today because no words would ever be enough. To all the incredible parents, family members, mentors, teachers, allies, friends and loved ones here today who have supported these students in their pursuit of educational enrichment, let me say to you now: Welcome to New York. It’s been waiting for you.

I’d like to thank NYU for making me technically, on paper at least, a doctor. Not the type of doctor you would want around in the case of an emergency, unless your specific emergency was that you desperately needed to hear a song with a catchy hook and an intensely cathartic bridge section. Or if your emergency was that you needed a person who can name over 50 breeds of cats in one minute.

I never got to have the normal college experience, per se. I went to public high school until tenth grade and finished my education doing homeschool work on the floors of airport terminals. Then I went out on the road on a radio tour, which sounds incredibly glamorous but in reality it consisted of a rental car, motels, and my mom and I pretending to have loud mother-daughter fights with each other during boarding so no one would want the empty seat between us on Southwest.

As a kid, I always thought I would go away to college, imagining the posters I’d hang on the wall of my freshmen dorm. I even set the ending of my music video for my song “Love Story” at my fantasy imaginary college, where I meet a male model reading a book on the grass and with one single glance, we realize we had been in love in our past lives. Which is exactly what you guys all experienced at some point in the last four years, right?

But I really can’t complain about not having a normal college experience to you because you went to NYU during a global pandemic, being essentially locked into your dorms or having to do classes over Zoom. Everyone in college during normal times stresses about test scores, but on top of that you also had to pass like 1,000 COVID tests. I imagine the idea of a normal college experience was all you wanted too. But in this case, you and I both learned that you don’t always get all the things in the bag that you selected from the menu in the delivery service that is life. You get what you get. And as I would like to say to you, you should be very proud of what you’ve done with it. Today, you leave New York University and then you go out into the world searching for what’s next. And so will I.

So as a rule, I try not to give anyone unsolicited advice unless they ask for it. I’ll go into this more later. I guess I have been officially solicited in this situation, to impart whatever wisdom I might have and tell you the things that helped me in my life so far. Please bear in mind that I, in no way, feel qualified to tell you what to do. You’ve worked and struggled and sacrificed and studied and dreamed your way here today and so, you know what you’re doing. You’ll do things differently than I did them and for different reasons.

So I won’t tell you what to do because no one likes that. I will, however, give you some life hacks I wish I knew when I was starting out my dreams of a career, and navigating life, love, pressure, choices, shame, hope and friendship.

The first of which is…life can be heavy, especially if you try to carry it all at once. Part of growing up and moving into new chapters of your life is about catch and release. What I mean by that is, knowing what things to keep, and what things to release. You can’t carry all things, all grudges, all updates on your ex, all enviable promotions your school bully got at the hedge fund his uncle started. Decide what is yours to hold and let the rest go. Oftentimes the good things in your life are lighter anyway, so there’s more room for them. One toxic relationship can outweigh so many wonderful, simple joys. You get to pick what your life has time and room for. Be discerning.

Secondly, learn to live alongside cringe. No matter how hard you try to avoid being cringe, you will look back on your life and cringe retrospectively. Cringe is unavoidable over a lifetime. Even the term “cringe” might someday be deemed “cringe.”

I promise you, you’re probably doing or wearing something right now that you will look back on later and find revolting and hilarious. You can’t avoid it, so don’t try to. For example, I had a phase where, for the entirety of 2012, I dressed like a 1950s housewife. But you know what? I was having fun. Trends and phases are fun. Looking back and laughing is fun.

And while we’re talking about things that make us squirm but really shouldn’t, I’d like to say that I’m a big advocate for not hiding your enthusiasm for things. It seems to me that there is a false stigma around eagerness in our culture of “unbothered ambivalence.”

This outlook perpetuates the idea that it’s not cool to “want it.” That people who don’t try hard are fundamentally more chic than people who do. And I wouldn’t know because I have been a lot of things but I’ve never been an expert on “chic.” But I’m the one who’s up here so you have to listen to me when I say this: Never be ashamed of trying. Effortlessness is a myth. The people who wanted it the least were the ones I wanted to date and be friends with in high school. The people who want it most are the people I now hire to work for my company.

I started writing songs when I was twelve and since then, it’s been the compass guiding my life, and in turn, my life guided my writing. Everything I do is just an extension of my writing, whether it’s directing videos or a short film, creating the visuals for a tour, or standing on stage performing. Everything is connected by my love of the craft, the thrill of working through ideas and narrowing them down and polishing it all up in the end. Editing. Waking up in the middle of the night and throwing out the old idea because you just thought of a newer, better one. A plot device that ties the whole thing together. There’s a reason they call it a hook. Sometimes a string of words just ensnares me and I can’t focus on anything until it’s been recorded or written down.

As a songwriter I’ve never been able to sit still, or stay in one creative place for too long. I’ve made and released 11 albums and in the process, I’ve switched genres from country to pop to alternative to folk. This might sound like a very songwriter-centric line of discussion but in a way, I really do think we are all writers. And most of us write in a different voice for different situations. You write differently in your Instagram stories than you do your senior thesis. You send a different type of email to your boss than you do your best friend from home. We are all literary chameleons and I think it’s fascinating. It’s just a continuation of the idea that we are so many things, all the time. And I know it can be really overwhelming figuring out who to be, and when. Who you are now and how to act in order to get where you want to go. I have some good news: it’s totally up to you. I also have some terrifying news: it’s totally up to you.

I said to you earlier that I don’t ever offer advice unless someone asks me for it, and now I’ll tell you why. As a person who started my very public career at the age of 15, it came with a price. And that price was years of unsolicited advice. Being the youngest person in every room for over a decade meant that I was constantly being issued warnings from older members of the music industry, the media, interviewers, executives. This advice often presented itself as thinly veiled warnings. See, I was a teenager in the public eye at a time when our society was absolutely obsessed with the idea of having perfect young female role models. It felt like every interview I did included slight barbs by the interviewer about me one day ‘running off the rails’. That meant a different thing to everyone person said it me. So I became a young adult while being fed the message that if I didn’t make any mistakes, all the children of America would grow up to be perfect angels. However, if I did slip up, the entire earth would fall off its axis and it would be entirely my fault and I would go to pop star jail forever and ever. It was all centered around the idea that mistakes equal failure and ultimately, the loss of any chance at a happy or rewarding life.

This has not been my experience. My experience has been that my mistakes led to the best things in my life.

And being embarrassed when you mess up is part of the human experience. Getting back up, dusting yourself off and seeing who still wants to hang out with you afterward and laugh about it? That’s a gift.

The times I was told no or wasn’t included, wasn’t chosen, didn’t win, didn’t make the cut…looking back, it really feels like those moments were as important, if not more crucial, than the moments I was told ‘yes’.

Not being invited to the parties and sleepovers in my hometown made me feel hopelessly lonely, but because I felt alone, I would sit in my room and write the songs that would get me a ticket somewhere else. Having label executives in Nashville tell me that only 35 year old housewives listen to country music and there was no place for a 13 year old on their roster made me cry in the car on the way home. But then I’d post my songs on my MySpace and yes, MySpace, and would message with other teenagers like me who loved country music, but just didn’t have anyone singing from their perspective. Having journalists write in-depth, oftentimes critical, pieces about who they perceive me to be made me feel like I was living in some weird simulation, but it also made me look inward to learn about who I actually am. Having the world treat my love life like a spectator sport in which I lose every single game was not a great way to date in my teens and twenties, but it taught me to protect my private life fiercely. Being publicly humiliated over and over again at a young age was excruciatingly painful but it forced me to devalue the ridiculous notion of minute by minute, ever fluctuating social relevance and likability. Getting canceled on the internet and nearly losing my career gave me an excellent knowledge of all the types of wine.

I know I sound like a consummate optimist, but I’m really not. I lose perspective all the time. Sometimes everything just feels completely pointless. I know the pressure of living your life through the lens of perfectionism. And I know that I’m talking to a group of perfectionists because you are here today graduating from NYU. And so this may be hard for you to hear: In your life, you will inevitably misspeak, trust the wrong people, under-react, overreact, hurt the people who didn’t deserve it, overthink, not think at all, self sabotage, create a reality where only your experience exists, ruin perfectly good moments for yourself and others, deny any wrongdoing, not take the steps to make it right, feel very guilty, let the guilt eat at you, hit rock bottom, finally address the pain you caused, try to do better next time, rinse, repeat. And I’m not gonna lie, these mistakes will cause you to lose things.

I’m trying to tell you that losing things doesn’t just mean losing. A lot of the time, when we lose things, we gain things too.

Now you leave the structure and framework of school and chart your own path. Every choice you make leads to the next choice which leads to the next, and I know it’s hard to know sometimes which path to take. There will be times in life when you need to stand up for yourself. Times when the right thing is to back down and apologize. Times when the right thing is to fight, times when the right thing is to turn and run. Times to hold on with all you have and times to let go with grace. Sometimes the right thing to do is to throw out the old schools of thought in the name of progress and reform. Sometimes the right thing to do is to listen to the wisdom of those who have come before us. How will you know what the right choice is in these crucial moments? You won’t.

How do I give advice to this many people about their life choices? I won’t.

Scary news is: you’re on your own now.

Cool news is: You’re on your own now.

I leave you with this: We are led by our gut instincts, our intuition, our desires and fears, our scars and our dreams. And you will screw it up sometimes. So will I. And when I do, you will most likely read about on the internet. Anyway…hard things will happen to us. We will recover. We will learn from it. We will grow more resilient because of it.

As long as we are fortunate enough to be breathing, we will breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out. And I’m a doctor now, so I know how breathing works.

I hope you know how proud I am to share this day with you. We’re doing this together. So let’s just keep dancing like we’re…

…The class of 22.

The comments below have not been moderated.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.