BOSTON (WHDH) - Singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen addressed students at The Boston College First Year Academic Convocation Thursday night.

The students read Springsteen’s autobiography “Born to Run” over the summer and the author offered his perspectives on education, personal relationships, democracy, and rock and roll to students who participated in the live webcast.

“Here in this place, you will not neglect the life of your mind,” Springsteen said. “I missed that my first time around and I had to do my best to make up for it on my own. I had to seek my teachers and my mentors in libraries and on the street. It works, but I was not able to immerse myself in a place entirely dedicated to learning and I wish that I had. What you’re about to embark upon will be the greatest adventure of your young life. You can waste it. You can half-ass your way through it. Or you can absorb every day of what you are experiencing and come out on the other end an individual of expanded vision, of intellectual vigor, of spiritual character and grace, fully prepared to meet the world on its own terms. To be young in this beautiful and accommodating city and to be engaged in the life of this school is a great, great privilege.”

As a parent of a 2012 BC graduate, Springsteen urged students to “absorb every day” of their experience in college.

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