Put the candidate to the lectern.
Taylor swift.
Blazing singer-songwriter, producer, director, actress,
pioneering and influential advocate for artist rights, and philanthropist.
You have brought joy and resolve
to your hundreds of millions of fans throughout the world.
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 rerecorded studio albums,
five extended plays, three live albums and 14 compilations,
you have sold well over 100 million album units,
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.
And you have spoken out,
and you have supported initiatives
to protect women and girls from harassment and sexual assault.
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.
Taylor swift,
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.
By virtue of the authority vested in me,
I am pleased to confer upon you
the degree of doctor of fine arts honoris causa.
I am now pleased to introduce Taylor swift,
who, who will respond on behalf of the honorary degree recipient.
大家好 我是泰勒
Hi, I'm Taylor.
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.
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 Felix Matos Rodriguez,
who humble me with the ways they improve our world with their work.
As for me,
I'm 90 percent sure the main reason i'm here
is because i have a song called 22.
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.
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?
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.
I know that words are supposed to be my thing,
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.
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.
*这两句话均出自她的歌曲《Welcome to New York》的歌词
I'd like to thank NYU for making me technically, on paper at least,
a doctor.
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.
Or if your emergency was that you needed a person,
who can name over 50 breeds of cats in one minute.
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 a 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.
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 for 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.
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.
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 what to do because no one likes that.
I will, however, give you some life hacks.
I wish I knew when I was starting up 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.
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.