She never "got to experience normal college schooling."
Taylor Swift, however, attended her graduation on Wednesday, May 18, at Yankee Stadium in New York.
The 32-year-old singer received an honorary doctorate in arts, issued by the famous NYU, New York University.
The opportunity for the artist to deliver a speech imbued with philosophy, emotion and self-mockery.
“I would like to thank NYU for making me a doctor,” she began.
Before joking: “Not the kind of doctor you would want to call on in an emergency (…)”
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“I always thought I would go to university”
The artist later said that she dreamed, as a child, of what she would experience one day at university.
“I imagined the posters that I would hang on the walls of my dormitory.
I even staged the end of my
Love Story
music video in my imaginary university, where I would meet a model reading a book on the grass.
At a glance, we would understand that we have been in love in our past lives.
That's exactly what you experienced during these four years, isn't it?
The singer told students they could be "proud" of enduring the stress of exams while coping with the effects of a global pandemic.
The interpreter of
All Too Well
also gave them his valuable advice.
"I try not to give unsolicited advice," she continued.
However, I will give you tips for everyday life, which I wish I had known when I started my career, but also in life, in terms of love, pressure, choice, shame, of hope and friendship.”
In video, Taylor Swift hears her song for the first time on the radio
“We will get over it”
The 30-year-old thus underlined that “life could be heavy”.
"Decide how much weight you want to carry, and free yourself from the rest," she added.
The young woman thus explained how the media and the industry had put pressure on her to become the
role model
of a generation.
"I became a young adult infused with this message: if I didn't make mistakes, all the children of America would become perfect angels."
Before adding: “Everything was centered on the idea that mistakes are synonymous with failure (…) This is not what I experienced.”
"My experience is that my mistakes have led to the best I have in life today."
Taylor Swift, at the same time, lamented that her love life was thrown to the media.
"Seeing the world treat my love life like a sport in which I lose every game has taught me to be fiercely protective of my privacy," she said.
And the 30-year-old concludes: “Difficult things will happen.
We'll get over it.
We will learn from it.
We will become more resilient through this.”