Taylor Swift Receives Honorary Doctorate After Saying It Was Her Number One Goal

Taylor Swift has been awarded an honorary doctorate by New York University.

The 32-year-old is now Dr Taylor Swift after receiving a Doctor of Fine Arts.

The singer was asked to give the commencement speech to 2022 graduates and she said she's blown away by the invitation.

"I’d like to thank NYU for making me technically, on paper at least, a doctor," she said.

"Not the type of doctor you would want around in the 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."

She lamented that she didn't get a normal college or university experience because she was busy kickstarting her music career.

To help alleviate this longing, Swift said she constructed the ending of the music video for 'Love Story' be her 'fantasy imaginary college, where I meet a male model reading a book on the grass and with one single glance, we realize we had been in love in our past lives'.

She then got onto the subject of what most commencement speeches contain.

Taylor said: "I guess I have been officially solicited in this situation, to impart whatever wisdom I might have and tell you the things that helped me in my life so far.

"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." 

Her hacks are that life is heavy, 'especially if you try to carry it all at once', that you should 'learn to live alongside cringe', and that you should never hide 'your enthusiasm for things'.

The 'Shake It Off' singer took reference from her hit song in another piece of advice from someone who has risen through the ranks of the global music industry to become an icon around the world.

She said: "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.

 "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.'"

She concluded her speech by saying: "I hope you know how proud I am to share this day with you. We’re doing this together. So let’s just keep dancing like we’re…the class of ’22."

For those playing at home, that's another reference to one of her songs.

Her achievement of getting an honorary doctorate comes six years after she said it was her number one goal.

She admitted during her 73 Questions with Vogue that she wanted the honour ‘because Ed Sheeran has one.’