Jing Wen (10) | STAFF REPORTER
Everyone knows Taylor Swift as one of the most famous American singer-songwriters, but most people don’t recognize her as someone who never got to experience normal college life. Just recently, she received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from New York University and to complete the experience, she was even wearing an honorary robe.
In her commencement speech, she joked about having the opportunity to be there because of her song 22. Swift shared a bit more about her education journey after being homeschooled starting from Grade 11. Her heartwarming speech included advice for the current graduating class of 2022 and with humbleness, she made sure to let them know that even though she doesn’t feel qualified to tell them what to do, she acknowledges the hard work and effort that each student has made to get to where they are today.
Swift ended her speech with a couple of inspiring words as advice for the students going out to pursue their dreams and careers. She said: “Never be ashamed of trying. Effortlessness is a myth.” Another segment of her speech that was encouraging was when she said, “when hard things 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 and breathe out. I am a doctor now so I know how breathing works.” A little humour to wrap it up but everything else can be something we think about when we encounter challenges.
It was a great time for her and the class of 22. It certainly gave Swift a little taste of the university experience and the class of 22 definitely received a number of exceptional life hacks from their honorary graduating peer.
