More from Taylor Swift

Losing things doesn't just mean losing. A lot of the time, when we lose things, we gain things too.

TS

Taylor Swift

New York University Commencement 2022, 2022

25:06

Video starts at 25:06 — the moment this quote was spoken

The Story Behind This Quote

Swift closed her speech with what she called the hardest truth for perfectionists to hear: a long, unflinching list of the mistakes they would inevitably make. 'You will inevitably misspeak, trust the wrong person, underreact, overreact, hurt the people who didn't deserve it, overthink, not think at all, self-sabotage, create a reality where only your experience exists.' The list went on — and on — building to what felt like an impossibly bleak conclusion: 'I'm not going to lie: these mistakes will cause you to lose things.' Then the pivot: losing wasn't just losing. The brevity of the insight — after that exhaustive catalog of failures — gave it power. She followed it with a meditation on the difficulty of choosing a path when every choice forecloses others, ending with the observation that 'there will be times to hold on with all you have, and times to let go with grace.'

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