Taylor Swift stepped up to the lectern at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday (May 18) to deliver the commencement address to New York University’s Class of 2022.
“Hi, I’m Taylor,” she said, wearing her first-ever cap and gown in the school’s famous shade of purple. “Last time I was in a stadium this size, I was dancing in heels and wearing a glittery leotard. This outfit is much more comfortable.”
While joking that she was “90 percernt sure the main reason I’m here is because I have a song called ’22,'” Swift spent her first words as an honorary doctor of fine arts passing down hard-won nuggets of wisdom to the graduating class, their parents, assembled loved ones and viewers. Drawing from her own life experiences, the 11-time Grammy winner — who in 2016 declared that she wanted an honorary doctorate because good friend Ed Sheeran already had one — offered up lessons with good humor, from cutely poking fun at her love of cats, as well as naivete about what a college romance might look like in her “Love Story” video, to the difficult encounters that have come with her tremendous fame at a young age.
And just in case the grads didn’t bring a pen and notebook to take notes during the pop star’s 20-minute speech, we’ve rounded up seven major lessons and takeaways Swift shared during her remarks. (Read the complete transcript of the superstar’s speech here.)
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We Are Each a Patchwork Quilt
Swift began her address by reminding this year’s crop of graduates that none of them have made it this far solely on their own. They’ve each had help — both directly and indirectly — from parents, grandparents, teachers, advisors, and other loved ones.
“We are each a patchwork quilt of those who have loved us,” she said, “those who have believed in our futures, those who showed us empathy and kindness or told us the truth even when it wasn’t easy to hear. Those who told us we could do it when there was absolutely no proof of that.”
She went on to remind the graduates: “Someone read stories to you and taught you to dream and offered up some moral code of right and wrong for you to try and live by. Someone tried their best to explain every concept in this insanely complex world to the child that was you, as you asked a bazillion questions like, ‘How does the moon work’ and ‘Why can we eat salad but not grass.’ … Maybe they aren’t with us anymore, and in that case, I hope you’ll remember them today. If they are here in this stadium, I hope you’ll find your own way to express your gratitude for all the steps and missteps that have led us to this common destination.”
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You Get What You Get — It’s What You Do With It
The Class of ’22 unfortunately found half their college careers upended by the coronavirus pandemic — a fact Swift noted forced them to navigate wearing masks, attending class via Zoom, and quarantining in their dorm rooms, all while trying to earn their degrees.
But the pop star insisted there was an important lesson to be found within the sobering reality check: “In this case, you and I both learned that you don’t always get all the things in the bag that you selected from the menu in the delivery service that is life. You get what you get. And as I would like to say to you, you should be very proud of what you’ve done with it.”
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Learn to Catch and Release
When it comes to balancing life in the real world, the pop star shared a hard-earned piece of wisdom she’s gleaned about having it all: “Part of growing up and moving into new chapters of your life is about catch and release. What I mean by that is, knowing what things to keep, and what things to release. You can’t carry all things, all grudges, all updates on your ex, all enviable promotions your school bully got at the hedge fund his uncle started. Decide what is yours to hold and let the rest go.
“Oftentimes the good things in your life are lighter anyway, so there’s more room for them,” she continued. “One toxic relationship can outweigh so many wonderful, simple joys. You get to pick what your life has time and room for. Be discerning.”
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Embrace the Cringe
Awkwardness and embarrassment are unavoidable pitfalls of modern existence for everyone. But if there’s one thing Swift’s always been good at, it’s rolling with the embarrassing punches and poking fun at herself along the way.
“No matter how hard you try to avoid being cringe, you will look back on your life and cringe retrospectively. Cringe is unavoidable over a lifetime. Even the term ‘cringe’ might someday be deemed cringe,” she told the assembled crowd.
“I promise you, you’re probably doing or wearing something right now that you will look back on later and find revolting and hilarious. You can’t avoid it, so don’t try to,” Swift continued. “For example, I had a phase where, for the entirety of 2012, I dressed like a 1950s housewife. But you know what? I was having fun. Trends and phases are fun. Looking back and laughing is fun.”
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Effortlessness Is a Myth
Next, the superstar channeled the lyrics of her Folklore-era fan favorite “Mirrorball” to eschew the idea that apathy and not trying are cool. “It seems to me that there is a false stigma around eagerness in our culture of ‘unbothered ambivalence.’ This outlook perpetuates the idea that it’s not cool to ‘want it.’ That people who don’t try hard are fundamentally more chic than people who do. And I wouldn’t know because I have been a lot of things but I’ve never been an expert on ‘chic.’
“But I’m the one who’s up here, so you have to listen to me when I say this: Never be ashamed of trying,” she went on. “Effortlessness is a myth. The people who wanted it the least were the ones I wanted to date and be friends with in high school. The people who want it most are the people I now hire to work for my company.”
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Mistakes Do Not Equal Failure
On the precipice of graduation, anyone’s bound to feel unstoppable — especially when Taylor Swift is chosen as your commencement speaker. But as the icon was quick to remind the graduates, every one of them is bound to make mistakes in the future.
“I know the pressure of living your life through the lens of perfectionism,” she stated. “And I know that I’m talking to a group of perfectionists because you are here today graduating from NYU. And so this may be hard for you to hear: In your life, you will inevitably misspeak, trust the wrong people, underreact, overreact, hurt the people who didn’t deserve it, overthink, not think at all, self sabotage, create a reality where only your experience exists, ruin perfectly good moments for yourself and others, deny any wrongdoing, not take the steps to make it right, feel very guilty, let the guilt eat at you, hit rock bottom, finally address the pain you caused, try to do better next time, rinse, repeat. And I’m not gonna lie, these mistakes will cause you to lose things.”
Swift noted: “I’m trying to tell you that losing things doesn’t just mean losing. A lot of the time, when we lose things, we gain things too.”
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Breathe In, Breathe Through, Breathe Deep, Breathe Out
As she wrapped up her speech, Swift passed along the admonition that when all else fails, the graduates should always remember to breathe.
“I leave you with this: We are led by our gut instincts, our intuition, our desires and fears, our scars and our dreams,” she said.”And you will screw it up sometimes. So will I. And when I do, you will most likely read about on the internet. Anyway … hard things will happen to us. We will recover. We will learn from it. We will grow more resilient because of it. As long as we are fortunate enough to be breathing, we will breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out.”