May 18 (UPI) -- Taylor Swift donned a cap and gown on Wednesday as she received an honorary degree from New York University and addressed the graduating class of 2022. Swift was given the Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree.
"The scary news is you're on your own," Swift told NYU grads. "But the cool news is you're on your own!"
Swift shared some "life hacks," telling NYU's class of 2022 life can be heavy sometimes and you can't carry all things.
"Decide what is yours to hold and let the rest go," she said. "Be discerning."
"You went to NYU during a global pandemic, being essentially locked into your dorms having classes over Zoom," Swift said. "Everyone in college during normal times stress over test scores but on top of that you also had to pass like a thousand COVID tests."
She told the NYU graduates we are all led by gut instincts and intuition, desires, fears, our scars and our dreams. Hard things will happen and "screw-ups" will happen, she said, but you grow more resilient because of them.
"You should be very proud," Swift said. "Today, you leave New York University and then go out into the world searching for what's next."
She advised the graduates to pick "what your life has time and room for."
"So let's keep dancing like we're the class of '22!," Swift said.
The singer wore a black cap with a purple gown and was seen waving and blowing kisses to the crowd as she arrived on the field.
Swift, on Instagram, posted a video of herself getting ready for the event.
"Wearing a cap and gown for the very first time -- see you soon NYU," she captioned the clip.
Swift recently debuted a newly recorded version of 1989 track "This Love" in the teaser trailer for Amazon's The Summer I Turned Pretty, and then later released the track for fans.
The move points to Swift releasing a re-recorded version of 1989 known as 1989 (Taylor's Version) in the near future.