Congratulations, Taylor Swift! The American singer-songwriter today received an honorary degree from NYU, a university she belongs to in the Class of 2022. The official ceremony was held at Yankee Stadium in New York City. In full Taytay style, every step and every thought was shared on social networks, including the process of preparing for the event. The caption for the video Swift chose was simple and impressive “Wear a cap and a dress for the first time – see you soon NYU”. In short, an exciting day for any girl, even for those who sold 40 million albums and 130 million singles.
At the beginning of the ceremony, Taylor made his entrance with the other students receiving the honorary degree, greeting the students in the stands as if it were the entrance to one of his concerts. For the occasion, Taylor wore a fiery red lipstick (a bit of her trademark) and when she went on stage for her speech, the Yankee Stadium lit up with applause and shouts.
The speech lasted about 20 minutes and touched on many topics, from the personal inner journey from the beginning of her career to today and then ended up giving advice to those like her who were about to graduate and enter the real world. It is recommended to face one thing at a time and not to carry too much weight on your shoulders and learn to lose. “I know I’m talking to a group of perfectionists because you’re here today graduating from NYU,” he explained. “Prepare yourself because in your life, you will inevitably speak ill, you will trust the wrong people, you will react insufficiently, you will overreact, you will hurt people who did not deserve it, you will think too much, you will not think at all, you will self-sabotage, you will create a reality in which only your experience exists, you will ruin perfectly good moments for yourself and for others, you will deny any wrongdoing, you will feel very guilty, you will touch the bottom, you will finally face the pain you caused, You will try to do better next time, rinse, repeat. And I won’t lie, these mistakes will make you lose things”.
Her speech included many personal anecdotes, digging into some of the painful parts of her past to share how she has grown since then. “Having the world treat my love life like a spectator sport where I lose every single game was not a great way to get out in my teens and twenties, but it taught me to fiercely protect my private life”.
He ended his speech by recalling that sometimes it’s okay to “ruin yourself” – and that we will all do it, at one point or another, and probably much more than once. But not only is it good, it’s good. Taylor Swift said it. “We are driven by our gut instincts, our intuition, our desires and fears, our scars and our dreams,” he explained. “And sometimes everything will go to hell. I will too. And when I do, you will most likely read about it on the Internet. Anyway… difficult things will happen to us. We will recover. We will learn. We will grow more resilient thanks to this. “