The University Of Maryland’s Alleged Valedictorian Dropped Out Right Before Graduation And He’s Taking The Internet By Storm

Jared Borislow8 years ago

You thought “Letter to CEO” Yelp girl was the pinnacle of misguided millennial angst? You thought wrong, bitch.

Giorgi “Gio” Managadze is a former University of Maryland Alpha Sig who claims to have been the school’s imminent valedictorian before he decided to drop out two weeks before graduation as a means of motivating himself to never stop following his dreams until they become reality. You can read his full public letter on LinkedIn here if you want (WARNING: it’s full of far too many paragraph breaks and 14 uses of the word “literally”); otherwise, here are some excerpts to give you the gist of what he was putting down.

Dear University of Maryland,

I was your Valedictorian until about a month ago and almost gave the Main Commencement Speech at graduation, but instead of giving the speech, I decided to follow my dreams, fail all my classes this semester, and drop out of school two weeks before graduation without getting a degree.

…

How did Cortes overtake the Aztec empire with only 600 men against hundreds of thousands of enemies?

After landing on the beaches of Mexico, instead of charging right into battle, he camped out on the beach, gave motivational speeches to his army for multiple days, and then burned every single one of his boats.

…

Why am I getting a degree if my dream is to not have a degree?

I don’t want a degree.

I don’t want any job that requires a degree, ever.

To me, a degree and any job that requires a degree, is an escape plan from my dreams.

I don’t need escape plans from my dreams.

I don’t need a back up plan in my life.

I don’t need a safety net.

I don’t ever want to work with anybody who thinks having a degree is more important than being fearless.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t waste any money, I fully completed my computer science major and technology entrepreneurship minor.

I got a computer science education and became a Valedictorian.

I only dropped out of school two weeks before graduation.

All I didn’t get was a piece of paper.

Gio’s reasoning, however absurd, is fairly sound. Yes, without a degree, you will now have to work harder for everything you have/want because you don’t have a fall-back. But do you know what’s better than motivation-by-fire? Not wasting tens of thousands of dollars on a degree that you never earned solely to prove a point when you could just as easily find another way to motivate yourself that won’t cause your parents to have to cross their fingers every time they say “I love you” from now on. Side note: from looking at Gio’s LinkedIn profile, you wouldn’t exactly get the impression that he didn’t earn that degree…

Looks like degrees are more important to Gio than he led us to believe.

As you’d expect, Gio got roasted in the comment section of his LinkedIn post. My favorite part about these disparaging remarks is that many of them were made by triggered middle-aged seasoned businessmen who felt as if they needed to come down from the rafters to teach this young’n a thing or two.

Gio seems like a fairly self-confident, calculating, and composed dude; I’m sure he had a great response to all these critics.

When Gio’s the new Zuck, you’re all gonna regret this..

[via LinkedIn]

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