A Nigerian lady, Gbemisola Taiwo, has captured the attention of many online after sharing the emotional rollercoaster she experienced in her pursuit of a master’s degree in the United States — a journey that began with sacrifice and ended in an unexpected visa denial.

 

In a heartfelt post on X (formerly Twitter), Taiwo revealed that during her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) year, she made a bold decision: to save every kobo of her monthly allowance to fund her dream of studying abroad. Determined and focused, she complemented her savings by setting aside ₦200 from her monthly salary, eventually gathering ₦20,000 — a fortune by her standards at the time.

“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.”

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According to Taiwo, the savings covered essential parts of her U.S. graduate school application — transcript fees, application charges, and other associated costs. But her dreams hit a wall when her visa application was denied.

“Every single dime was wasted,” she lamented. “I cried ehn.”

 

Devastated, she recalled feeling like everything she had worked for had come crashing down. “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,” she added.

Despite the crushing disappointment, Taiwo’s story didn’t end there.

 

Shortly after completing NYSC, she landed a job with a ₦100,000 starting salary. It marked the beginning of a new chapter — one where she slowly began saving again, applying the same discipline she had developed during her service year.

That financial discipline eventually paid off in 2022, when she successfully relocated to the United Kingdom to pursue her master’s degree — a milestone she now describes as one of the most rewarding decisions of her life.

 

Reflecting on her journey, Taiwo shared a powerful message: “Some setbacks come to sharpen you for the next level. At the time, I thought that was the worst thing to ever go through in life, but the truth? I’ve been through worse. Sometimes the redirection is the real blessing.”

 

Her story has since inspired many, proving that failure is never final — and that every setback may just be a setup for something greater.