Taylor Swift has added yet another accolade to her highly-decorated career.
Swift, an 11-time Grammy winner, has received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from New York University, earning herself a new title: “doctor”.
Swift, 32, was at Yankee Stadium in New York on Wednesday (local time) to collect her doctorate at the Class of 2022’s graduation ceremony.
The star’s appearance at the ceremony was highly anticipated, with graduates reportedly attempting to sell their tickets to avid ‘Swifties’ hoping to catch a glimpse of the singer.
Swift took to the stage for the ceremony’s commencement speech to a chorus of deafening cheers.
“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,” she joked.
“I’m 90 per cent sure the reason I’m here is because I have a song called 22.”
Swift shared anecdotes with graduates from her journey to success and superstardom.
“I never got to have a normal college experience, per se. I went to public high school until tenth grade, and then finished my education doing homeschool work on the floors of airport terminals.”
“As a kid, I always thought I would go away to college, imaging the posters I would hang on the wall of my freshman dorm.”
She then went on to share “life hacks” with the graduates, telling them to “live alongside cringe”.
“No matter how hard you try to avoid being cringe, you will look back on your life and cringe retrospectively,” she said.
“I promise you, you’re probably doing or wearing something something now that you will look back on later and find revolting and hilarious. Can’t avoid it, so don’t try to.”
Swift concluded by telling graduates that making mistakes was inevitable but “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,” she said.
“I am a doctor now so I know how breathing works.”
The singer-songwriter, producer and director began her music career at 15.
She has since sold more than 100 million albums and won album of the year at the 2021 Grammys for her album folkore, making her the first woman to win the category three times.
Swift is busy re-recording her entire music catalogue after a bitter fallout with her former music label.
She has so far released ‘Taylor’s versions’ of her albums Fearless and Red, hinting that her hit smash-hit album 1989 will be the next to receive the re-release special treatment.
-with AAP
