In 2016, famous signer Taylor Swift was interviewed by Vogue and sarcastically disclosed her envy towards a friend of hers, Ed Sheeran, who attended college. Years later, in 2022, the prestigious University of New York City (NYU), offered her the chance to achieve what she’s been so enthusiastic about, wearing a cap and gown for the first time.
Swift herself has been so overwhelmed with joy, that she finally put an end to her absence on social media platforms, by sharing her thoughts with her fans as well as a plethora of videos. The soon-to-be graduates of NYU not only had the opportunity to be advised by one of the most successful women in the music industry but also to get to know her in person. Undoubtedly, the most engaging part of the ceremony was the artist’s speech, which could be titled vigorous, motivating, and genuine. Taylor Swift certainly had a lot of eyes on her as she gave her speech, which, eventually, kicked off with her poking fun at her doctorate by referencing the graduating class of ’22 and joking, “I’m 90% sure the main reason I’m here is that I have a song called ’22.’” She continued by quoting, “I am a big advocate for not hiding your enthusiasm for things” aiming to embrace her fans to get over prejudice and cringing. Throughout her remarkable career, Swift has encountered “excruciatingly painful” experiences about which she was willing to open up in order to let other graduates reflect on them.
However, the direct result for her was, as she highlighted, to understand the significance of trying. “Never be ashamed of trying. Effortlessness is a myth.” Her speech was mainly based on the lessons she’s acquired as a young musician. She stated that having a ten-year age gap with every other artist in the room automatically divided her into a category of the young model. She has endured years of her behavior, comments, love life, and songs being analyzed in detail, to the point where she needed to take a break from her career due to the reluctance of the media to tolerate such huge success. “Life can be heavy, especially if you try to carry it all at once.” According to her the most fascinating thing about humans is that “we are all literary chameleons” because that is the “continuation of the idea that we are all so many things, all the time and we try to find who to be, when to be, how and why to be.
To sum up, she finished her speech by emphasizing that “making mistakes might cause one to lose things, nevertheless, losing things doesn’t mean losing completely, because we gain things too.” The applause for the now, on-paper, Doctor Of Fine Arts, was warm, loud, and sincere.
