Taylor Swift received an honorary degree from New York University on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium, and assured the Class of 2022 in an aspirational commencement speech that it’s OK to make mistakes, reports The NY Daily News.
“I was a teenager at a time when our society was absolutely obsessed with the idea of having perfect young female role models,” Swift told the new graduates.
“I became a young adult while being fed the message that if I didn’t make any mistakes, that all the children of America would grow up perfect angels. However, if I did slip up, the entire Earth would fall off its axis, and it’d be entirely my fault. ... 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.”
Dressed in a black cap and purple gown, Swift, 32, waved and blew kisses to the Bronx crowd as she arrived on the field, then unleashed a big smile as she accepted her honorary doctor of fine arts degree.
Her nearly 25-minute speech balanced advice and personal anecdotes with moments of humor and references to her songs.
“I would like to thank NYU for making me, technically, on paper at least, a doctor,” Swift quipped. “Not the type of doctor you would want around in 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.”
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