(audience clapping) - I would like now to introduce Jason King Chair and Associate Professor of the Clive Davis
Institute of Recorded Music, Tisch School of the Arts, who will present the candidate
for Doctor of Fine Arts. Will trustee, Brett Racon, please escort the
candidate to the lectern. (audience applauding)
(audience cheering) - Taylor Swift (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) blazing singer, songwriter,
producer, director, actress, pioneering and influential
advocate for artists' rights and philanthropist. You have brought joy and resolve to your hundreds of millions
of fans throughout the world. (audience cheering) One of the best selling
music artists in history. You have crossed genres,
demographics, age groups and borders of all kinds to touch lives around the globe. With nine original studio albums two re-recorded studio albums, (audience applauding)
(audience cheering) five extended plays, three live
albums and 14 compilations. You have sold well over
100 million album units, (audience applauding)
(audience cheering) earning awards and
honors in every category. You have used the remarkable
platform you earned to galvanize support for the Equality Act to prevent discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation and gender identity. (audience applauding)
(audience cheering) And you have spoken out and you have supported initiatives to protect women and girls from harassment and sexual assaults. (audience applauding)
(audience cheering) You have donated significantly to victims of floods and tornadoes, for cancer research, literacy
programs for children and public education. You have fearlessly
challenged the exploitation of music artists and successfully championed their right to be compensated for their work. (audience applauding)
(audience cheering) - Taylor Swift,
(audience cheering) you are a role model across the world for your unprecedented
talent and accomplishment, your fierce advocacy for protection of those
facing discrimination and your commitment to speaking out forcefully, eloquently and effectively on behalf of all artists. (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) By virtue of the authority vested in me, I am pleased to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of
Fine Arts honoris causa. (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) (audience members cheering) I am now pleased to
introduce Taylor Swift, who will respond on behalf of the honorary
degree recipients. (audience applauding)
(audience cheering) - Hi, I'm Taylor. (audience applauding)
(audience cheering) Last time I was in a stadium this size I was dancing in heels and
wearing a glittery leotard. (podium members chuckling)
(audience cheering) This outfit is much more comfortable. I would like to say a huge thank you to NYU's Chairman of the Board
of Trustees, Bill Berkeley and all the trustees and
members of the board. NYU's President Andrew Hamilton,
Provost Katherine Fleming and the faculty and alumni here today, who have made this day possible. I feel so proud to share this
day with my fellow honorees Susan Hockfield and Félix Matos Rodríguez, who humble me with the
ways they improve our world with their work. (audience applauding)
(audience cheering) As for me, I'm 90% sure,
the main reason I'm here is because I have a song called "22." (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) And let me just say, I am elated
to be here with you today, as we celebrate and graduate New York University's Class of 2022. (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) Not a single one of us here
today has done it alone. We are each a patchwork quilt
of those who have loved us, 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. 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? (audience chuckles) And maybe they didn't do it perfectly, no one ever can. Maybe they aren't with us anymore. In that case, I hope
you'll remember them today. If they are 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. (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) I know that words are
supposed to be my thing but I will never be able to find the words to thank my mom and
dad, my brother, Austin, for the sacrifices they made every day, so I could go from
singing in coffee houses to standing up here with you all today because no words would ever be enough. (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) To all the incredible parents,
family members, mentors teachers, allies, friends,
and loved ones here today, who have supported these students in their pursuit of
educational enrichment. Let me say to you now welcome to New York, it's been waiting for you. (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) I'd like to thank NYU for making me technically, on paper at least, a doctor. (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) 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. (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) Or if your emergency was
that you needed a person who can name over 50 breeds
of cats in one minute. (audience cheering) I never got to have a normal
college experience per se. I went to public high
school until 10th grade and then finished my education, doing homeschool work on the
floors of airport terminals. Then I went out on the road for radio tour which sounds incredibly glamorous, but in reality it consisted
of a rental car, motels, and my mom and I, pretending to have loud
mother-daughter fights with each other during boarding, so no one would want the empty
seat between us on Southwest. (audience chuckles) As a kid, I always thought
I would go away to college, imagining the posters I
would hang on the wall of my freshman dorm. I even set the ending of my music video from my song "Love Story" at
my fantasy imaginary college where I meet a male model,
reading a book on the grass. And with one single glance we realized we had been
in love in our past lives which is exactly what
you guys all experienced at some point in the
last four years, right? But I really can't complain about not having a normal
college experience to you because you went to NYU
during a global pandemic being essentially locked into your dorms and having to do classes over Zoom. Everyone in college during normal times stresses about test scores. But on top of that you also had to pass like
a thousand COVID tests. (audience chuckles) I imagine the idea of a
normal college experience was all you wanted too. But 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 surface that is life. You get what you get. And as I would like to
say to you wholeheartedly you should be very proud of
what you've done with it. Today, you leave New York University and then go out into the
world, searching what's next, and so will I. (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) So as a rule, I try not to
give anyone unsolicited advice unless they ask for it. I'll go into this more later. I guess I have been officially
solicited in this situation to impart whatever wisdom I might have to tell you things that have
helped me so far in my life. Please bear in mind that I in no way feel qualified
to tell you what to do. You've worked and struggled and sacrificed and studied and dreamed
your way here today. And so, you know what you're doing you'll do things differently than I did them and for different reasons. So I won't tell you to what to do 'cause no one likes that. I will, however, give you
some life hacks, I wish I knew when I was starting out
my dreams of a career and navigating life,
love, pressure, choices, shame, hope, and friendship. The first of which is, life can be heavy especially if you try
to carry it all at once. 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. (audience chuckles) 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. One toxic relationship can outweigh so many
wonderful, simple joys. You get to pick what your
life has time and room for. Be discerning. Secondly, learn to live alongside cringe. (audience cheering)
(audience laughing) No matter how hard you
try to avoid being cringe, you will look back on your life
and cringe retrospectively. (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) Cringe is unavoidable over a lifetime. Even the term cringe might
someday be deemed cringe. I promise you're probably doing or wearing something right now that you will look back on later and find revolting and hilarious. (audience chuckles) You can't avoid it, so don't try to. For example I had a phase
where for the entirety of 2012, I dressed like a 1950's housewife But you know what? I was having fun. Trends and phases are fun. Looking back and laughing is fun. And while we're talking about
things that make us squirm but really shouldn't. I'd like to say I'm a big advocate for not hiding your enthusiasm for things. (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) 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 are fundamentally more
chic than people who do. And I wouldn't know because
I've 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. 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 the most are the people I now hire
to work for my company. (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) I started writing songs when I was 12. And since then it's been
the compass guiding my life, and in turn, my life guided my writing everything I do is just
an extension of my writing whether it's directing
videos or a short film creating the visuals for a tour or standing on a stage performing. Everything is connected
by my love of the craft the thrill of working through ideas and narrowing them down and
polishing it all up in the end, editing, waking up in
the middle of the night, throwing out the old idea because you just thought
of a new or better one or a plot device that ties
the whole thing together. There's a reason they call it a hook. Sometimes a string of
words just ensnares me and I can't focus on anything until it's been recorded or written down. As a songwriter I've never
been able to sit still or stay in one creative
place for too long. I've made and released 11 albums and in the process, I've switched genre from country to pop,
to alternative to folk. And this might sound like a very songwriter-centric
line of discussion, but in a way I really do
think we are all writers and most of us write in a different voice for different situations. You write differently in
your Instagram stories than you do your senior thesis. You send a different type
of email to your boss than you do your best friend from home. We are all literary chameleons
and I think it's fascinating. It's just a continuation of the idea that we are so many things all the time. And I know it can be really overwhelming figuring out who to be and when, who you are now and how to act in order to get where you wanna go. I have some good news.
It's totally up to you. I have some terrifying news. It's totally up to you. I said to you earlier that
I don't ever offer advice unless someone asked me for it and now I'll tell you why. As a person who started
my very public career at the age of 15, it came with a price and that price was years
of unsolicited advice. Being the youngest person in
every room for over a decade meant that I was constantly
being issued warnings from older members of the music industry, media, interviewers, executives and this advice often presented itself as thinly veiled warnings. See, I was a teenager at a time when our society was absolutely obsessed with the idea of having perfect
young female role models. It felt like every interview I did included slight barbs by the interviewer about me one day, running off the rails and that meant a different thing to every person who said it to me. So I became a young adult
while being fed the message that if I didn't make any mistakes, all the children of America would grow up to be perfect angels. However, if I did slip up, the entire earth would fall off its axis and it would be entirely my fault and I would go to pop star
jail forever and ever. 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. My experience has been that my mistakes led to the best things in my life and being embarrassed when you mess up it's part of the human experience. Getting back up, dusting yourself off and seeing who still wants to
hang out with you afterward and laugh about it, that's a gift. The times I was told
no or wasn't included, wasn't chosen, didn't
win, didn't make the cut, looking back, it really
feels like those moments were as important if not more crucial than the moments I was told, yes. Not being invited to the parties and
sleepovers in my hometown made me feel hopelessly lonely, but because I felt alone,
I would sit in my room and write the songs that would get me a ticket somewhere else. Having label executives
in Nashville tell me that only 35 year old housewives
listen to country music and there was no place for a
13 year old on their roster made me cry in the car on the way home but then I'd post my songs on
my MySpace and yes, MySpace. (audience chuckles) And I would message with
other teenagers like me who loved country music but just didn't have anyone
singing from their perspective. Having journalists write in depth oftentimes critical pieces
about who they perceive me to be made me feel like I was living
in some weird simulation but it also made me look inward to learn about who I actually am. Having the world treat my love life like a spectator sport in which I lose every single game was not a great way to date
in my teens and twenties, but it taught me to protect
my private life fiercely. Being publicly humiliated over
and over again at a young age was excruciatingly painful but it forced me to devalue
the ridiculous notion of minute by minute, ever fluctuating social
relevance and likability. (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) Getting canceled on the internet
and nearly losing my career gave me an excellent knowledge
of all the types of wine. (audience laughing) I know I sound like a consummate optimist but I'm really not. I lose perspective all the time. Sometimes everything just
feels completely pointless. I know the pressure of living your life through the lens of perfectionism and I know that I'm talking
to a group of perfectionists because you are here
today, graduating from NYU. (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) So this might be hard for you to hear. In your life, you will
inevitably misspeak, trust the wrong person,
under react, 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. (audience chuckles) (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) And I'm not gonna lie, these mistakes will
cause you to lose things. 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. Now you leave the structure
and framework of school and chart your own path. Every choice you make
leads to the next choice, which leads to the next and I know it's hard to
know which path to take. There will be times in life where you need to stand up for yourself times when the right thing is actually to back down and apologize, times when the right thing is to fight, times when the right
thing is to turn and run, times to hold on with all you have and times to let go with grace. Sometimes the right thing to do is to throw out the old schools of thought in the name of progress and reform. Sometimes the right thing
to do is to sit and listen to the wisdom of those
who have come before us. How will you know what the right choice is in these crucial moments? You won't. How do I give advice to this many people about their life choices? I won't. The scary news is you're on your own now but the cool news is,
you're on your own now. (audience cheering)
(audience applauding) I leave you with this. We are led by our gut
instincts, our intuition, our desires and fears,
our scars and our dreams. And you will screw it
up sometimes, so will I. And when I do, you will most likely read
about it 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. And as long as we are fortunate
enough to be breathing we will breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out. And I am a doctor now, so I know how breathing works. (audience laughing) (audience applauding) I hope you know how proud I
am to share this day with you. We're doing this together. So let's just keep dancing,
like we're the Class of '22. (audience cheering)
(audience applauding)
