Revisiting Taylor Swift’s Moving, Monumental NYU Commencement Address

Taylor Swift, taking the moment and tasting it. 

As the leaves turn auburn red mixed with orangish yellows and dull greens, I sense change. I sense change in more than just the seasons. 

With my senior year of college coming to a close in the spring and the chapter of my time at UT Austin ending with it, I imagine where I’ll be in a year. For the past four years, I’ve known. Now, it’s a mystery waiting to be solved. 

Dreams pull me to New York City, a curious city of opportunities surrounded by those willing to chase them. As I vividly imagine myself roaming the crowded streets, walking on a sense of purposeful change that would bring me there, I think of Taylor Swift. 

I think of Taylor Swift’s New York University (NYU) Commencement Address to the 2022 graduating class. I think of the takeaways that followed me throughout my college years, and what will lift me into new chapters of my life – chapters that I see so clearly, they already feel written. 

In a 2016 73 Questions interview with Vogue, Swift said “I really want an honorary doctorate degree because Ed Sheeran has one, and I feel like he looks down on me now because I don't have one.” Like myself, Swift had a dream. She yearned to be recognized for her artistry, and she was. Swift received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from NYU in 2022. 

As the prelude to the Address begins, Jason King, NYU chair and associate professor, reads off Swift’s many hats like a grocery list: “singer/songwriter, producer, director, actress…” and the list goes on. As attendees roar in excitement, Swift takes the lectern with a humble smile and teary eyes. 

“Hi, I’m Taylor,” she says to the crowd as if they were new friends. With humor, gratitude, and wisdom, Swift continues her speech. 

“Not a single one of us here today has (graduated) alone,” Swift says. “We are each a patchwork quilt of those that have loved us, those who have believed in our futures…Someone read stories to you and taught you to dream.” 

As I reflect on my college years and my inching toward the finish line, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for those who have held my hand along the way. As I realize that my journey as a journalist has just begun, I am overwhelmed with excitement, but also a white-knuckle grip on the simpler past.  

Swift admires the students before her for completing college amidst a global pandemic. She humors the crowd, reminding us that we all have a plan but oftentimes, it doesn’t line up with what life has to give you. “Today, you leave New York University and then go out into the world, searching what’s next, and so will I,” Swift says. 

“Life can be heavy,” Swift continues. “Especially if you try to carry it all at once. Part of growing up is about catch and release…knowing what things to keep, and what things to release.” As I soon leave behind a city I loved for years to hopefully move to one I’ve dreamed of for much longer, I know the mental baggage I bring with me has to be minimal. New chapters give you the privilege to join a new race, chasing a new finish line. Swift goes on to say, “Decide what is yours to hold, and let the rest go. Oftentimes, the good things in your life are lighter anyway.”

Something I often forget amidst the chaos and changes in life is my choice – my choice to live a life filled with what makes my heart sing. “You get to pick what your life has time and room for,” Swift reminds me. “Be discerning.” 

Swift goes on to tell viewers and attendees to lean into their “cringe” moments, to love themselves through them. She jokes about her 2012 style that resembled a “1950s housewife.” “But you know what, I was having fun.”

“While we’re talking about things that make us squirm but really shouldn’t, I’m a big advocate for not hiding your enthusiasm for things,” Swift says, further emphasizing the importance of loving all parts of yourself as you grow up. “Never be ashamed of trying. Effortlessness is a myth.” As I fill out applications for graduate school programs and fantasize about what my future could hold if I just keep going, I feel Swift’s hand on my shoulder. I feel a comforting reassurance that if I chase my dreams, I’ll catch up to them. 

“I started writing songs when I was 12,” Swift said. “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.”

As an aspiring journalist and writer, Swift describing the invisible string from her life to her writing felt more than relatable. Swift’s passion for the art of writing is tangible – I see myself in her, and I know so many other young women like myself do too. 

“We are so many things all the time,” Swift says. “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 want to go.”

Patting us on the back, looking us in the eyes, seeing us for who we are and what we’re doing – trying – Swift has been there too. She’s not known where to turn or who to be at times, and as I leave my undergraduate years, neither do I. But Swift reminds me, “It’s totally up to you.” With a comforting smile followed by an anxious stare, she and I both understand the implications of this statement – it’s totally up to me. 

Swift joked about the unsolicited advice she was given throughout her career. She tells attendees of the pressure she was put under to be perfect – a pressure I, and so many others, can feel making us crumble. But, Swift reminds us, the Earth will not fall off its axis if we make a mistake. Mistakes do not equal failure. “My mistakes led to the best things in my life,” Swift confesses. “Being embarrassed when you mess up is 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.” 

I imagine myself listening to Swift’s “The Best Day” and “Fifteen” as I hear Swift say this: “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.’”

Rather than holding grudges and screaming at the sky for those who wronged you, you simply learn, grow, and express gratitude for those that were there to catch you when you fell. 

I see myself in Swift, again, as she talks about being left out and lonely, writing so she could “get a ticket to somewhere else.” As she grew through those experiences and got where she wanted to go, she looked inward. She was scrutinized and picked apart through her teens and 20s but realized that social relevance does not hold a candle to the private parts of her life. In a world that’s become digital, where “likes” influence our perception of our true likability, we must simply remember to hang up the phone and hang out with those around us. 

“I know the pressure of living your life through the lens of perfectionism,” Swift says. “In your life, you will inevitably misspeak, trust the wrong person, underreact, overreact, hurt the people that 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…rinse, repeat,” Swift says with a smile. In short, we’re all going to be human. 

“Losing things doesn't just mean ‘losing,’ Swift continues. “A lot of the time when we lose things, we gain things too.” From choosing to stand up for yourself to choosing to back down, life is full of choices that lead to the next. Through this, we gain perspective. Swift recounts a plethora of choices we are likely to make in our lifetime – whether that be letting go or holding on, running away or fighting, Swift begs the question: “How will we know what the right choice is?” She then simply answers, “You won’t.”

Unbeknownst to fans at the time, Swift nods to her now-hit song “You’re On Your Own, Kid.” She says, “The scary news is, you’re on your own now. But the cool news is, you’re on your own now.” And as I turn the corner, about to run to my next destination in the path of life, I feel this sentiment more than ever. 

Swift leaves us with another reference to a now-hit song, “Labyrinth,” – “As long as we are fortunate enough to be breathing, we will breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, and breathe out.” We will learn from our mistakes, we will lean on each other as we inevitably fall, and we will move through the chapters of life like it's our favorite book – with eagerness, patience, compassion, love, and gratitude. 

Swift’s Commencement Address acts as a guide on how to navigate the complex, continuous maze of life. 

While Swift’s life feels all too glamorous to resemble anything close to our own, she’s human just like us. She’s a human who makes mistakes, but most importantly, she’s a human who gets back up and motivates us to do the same.

Swift inspires me to close chapters of my life, accept the changing leaves, love myself through mistakes, and cross new finish lines. Whether that be in New York or within the streets of my hometown, Swift’s 2022 NYU Commencement Address reminds me that my dreams are meant to be chased.

I’ll forever be tied to the ones that guided me as I grew up, but after all, I’m on my own now. 

No one is going to chase after my dreams but me.