Enlarge image
Honorary Doctor Swift: "I know how breathing works"
Photo: Seth Little / picture alliance/dpa/AP
Singer-songwriter superstar Taylor Swift is now a PhD.
The 32-year-old received an honorary doctorate from New York University on Wednesday - and offered some life advice to the graduates at their graduation in the packed stadium of the New York Yankees baseball team.
Tens of thousands of people - graduates and their families and friends - attended the celebration.
"I'm 90 percent sure the main reason I'm speaking here is because I have a song called '22,'" she told the 2022 class.
"Life can be hard, especially when you're trying to carry everything at once," said Swift, who has sold over 100 million records and been showered with Grammys.
It is important to know what to keep and what to let go of - for example resentment over ex-partners or envy of other people's jobs.
“A toxic relationship can outweigh so many wonderful, simple pleasures.
You can choose what your life has time and space for.
Be demanding,« the artist advised the graduates.
»50 cat breeds in one minute«
Swift, who never went to college and began her music career at age 15, received her PhD in Fine Arts.
It's best not to ask her for help in emergencies, "unless your specific emergency is that you urgently need to hear a song with a catchy hook and an extremely cathartic bridge section." Or if someone is needed, the Can list over 50 breeds of cats in a minute.
Enlarge image
Swift with grads at Yankee Stadium
Photo: Seth Little / picture alliance/dpa/AP
One should never be too timid to achieve one's own goals, Swift continued.
"Effortlessness is a myth." You can also reinvent yourself at any time to get where you want to go: "I have good news: It's entirely up to you.
I also have some frightening news: it's entirely up to you."
At the end, she told the graduates that it would not always be easy: »And sometimes you will mess up.
I also.
And if I do that, you will most likely read about it on the internet.« But you recover from even the biggest setbacks.
“As long as we're lucky enough to breathe, we'll breathe deeply, inhale deeply, and exhale.
And I'm a PhD now, so I know how breathing works."
feb/dpa/AP/Reuters
