When Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived in Belfast as a 19-year-old bodybuilder in 1966, he was unknown outside the sport, barely spoke English, and was so nervous about public speaking that he had never done it before. What happened next, he says, changed everything. He was invited to speak to an audience after a bodybuilding competition, and the response he received gave him something he had never felt: a comfort in front of a crowd that stayed with him for the rest of his life. Sixty years later, he returned to that same city and, to the delight of hundreds of students who lined the balconies of Ulster University’s Belfast campus holding signs reading “Hasta La Vista, Ulster,” received an honorary doctorate recognizing his contributions to public service, environmental advocacy and the arts. The crowd went wild when he acknowledged the famous phrase from his past: he said that 40 years ago he promised he would be back, and now he just says his back hurts.
The doctorate represents a remarkably full arc for someone whose life story is one of the more improbable in modern history. Born in Austria with no guarantee of any of what followed, Schwarzenegger won the Mr. Olympia bodybuilding title seven times, became one of Hollywood’s most recognizable action stars, served two terms as Governor of California and became a prominent voice for environmental action and philanthropy. He told the assembled students that having a clear vision is the most important thing, that anything that comes easily is not worth having, and that education is the foundation on which every other kind of ambition is built. One student from Nigeria studying film production said that Schwarzenegger’s story of crossing borders and building a life through resilience resonated deeply with his own journey to Belfast, and made him feel that anything is possible.
