Taylor Swift is the latest in a handful of celebrities who have received an honorary degree from a University.
On Wednesday, the crowd cheered as the singer made her way to the stage at New York University’s graduation ceremony.
It was announced that Swift had been given an honorary doctorate of fine arts from NYU.
As she took her place surrounded by a sea of students in the packed-out Yankee Stadium, Swift joked: “I’m 90% sure the main reason I’m here is because I have a song called 22.”
Swift then gave her commencement speech: “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 home school work on the floor of airport terminals.”
While this might sound exciting, it hasn’t been an easy road for the songwriter, who began her career at just fifteen years old.
And that’s precisely the advice she wanted to share with the new graduates: “Never be ashamed of trying. Effortlessness is a myth,” she said.
She shared her advice to the students of NYU but added that “I in no way feel qualified to tell you what to do. You’ve worked, struggled, sacrificed, studied, and dreamed your way here today.
“I won’t tell you what to do because nobody likes that, but I will however give you life hacks for when I was starting out my dreams as a career.”
She concluded her inspiring speech, saying: “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.
“I hope you know how proud I am to share this day with you,” she said. “We’re doing this together so let’s just keep on dancing like we’re the class of 22.”