A Nigerian woman, Gbemisola Taiwo, has opened up about the sacrifices she made in pursuit of a master’s degree in the United States (U.S.), only to face a visa rejection.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Taiwo shared how she diligently saved her entire National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) allowance, along with a portion of her salary, to fund her U.S. master’s application.
Throughout her service year, she refrained from spending any of her NYSC monthly stipend, choosing instead to add ₦200 from her salary each month to her savings, ultimately amassing ₦20,000.
Taiwo explained that she used this money to cover various expenses associated with the application process, including fees and transcript submissions.
“I didn’t touch my NYSC allowance at all,” she wrote. “At the time, I was working with a company, and I would take out ₦200 from my salary, then add it to the allowance to make it ₦20,000.”
Despite her hard work and sacrifices, Taiwo’s visa application was rejected. “Every single dime was wasted,” she lamented, expressing her deep disappointment. “I cried ehn.”
However, she didn’t let this setback define her. Reflecting on her journey, Taiwo explained how she bounced back: “I honestly can’t remember the exact ‘how.’ What I do remember is how deeply crushed I was. I felt like I had lost everything. That NYSC allowance meant the world to me. That was the most money I’d ever saved at the time, and it was all gone in one moment.”
Nevertheless, Taiwo didn’t give up. She secured a job immediately after her NYSC service, with a starting salary of ₦100,000.
Slowly, she began saving again. That experience, she said, taught her the discipline of saving, even when it’s painful.
“It didn’t work out back then, but those same habits helped me save towards my UK master’s, which I eventually did in 2022.”
She concluded by sharing the lesson she learned from her experience: “Some setbacks come to sharpen you for the next level. Maybe this story didn’t end the way people expected. But that’s life.
Sometimes the redirection is the real blessing. Trust me, at the time I thought that was the worst thing to ever go through in life, but the truth is I’ve been through worse and came out of it. God is good!”
