Following my DREAM

Today is my 24th birthday and I am completely grateful to God for that, but I have even BIGGER news. My BEST FRIEND and I will be heading to STANFORD UNIVERSITY for our Ph.D. program in German Studies this Autumn!!!

This all started with a dream, and no, I don’t mean Martin Luther’s kind. I mean I slept and God showed it to me in a dream.

Before I proceed, I have to say that;

1) This will be a lengthy post.

2) It is going to contain thoughts in alignment with the Christian faith.

On my 23rd birthday, as I was making a post on Instagram, God revealed to me that it was going to be a year of greatness. He literally said “G for Greatness” and I wrote it down.

Some people already know that Kemi and I applied to ONLY (and got accepted into) The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa together and at first attempt, which was also divinely arranged.

Anyway, after our first semester, we began to actively look for Universities for our Ph.D. as our department does not have a Ph.D. program. After searching extensively, we realized that we just couldn’t meet the requirements of so many universities we had looked into (like submitting GRE test scores, IELTS etc). Doing a GRE was completely out of question. My maths skills are poor. After a lot of deliberation, we decided to look into schools in Canada and agreed to apply to McGill University, Canada as we met all the requirements. Mind you, this was just after our first semester, the duration of our masters program is 2 years, but, Kemi and I are very pro-active. It would have made sense to the natural mind to wait till the second year before starting to apply, but that ‘hurry’ was going to later birth one of the biggest blessings in our lives and career.

We sent emails to a Professor at McGill, but didn’t get any response (till date). Anyway, I began to worry a lot, knowing that I might have to relocate to Canada after my masters. My spirit just didn’t agree to the plan. I worried a lot that one night, the Holy Spirit said directly to me ‘CLOSE ALL THE TABS’. I thought ‘So you mean I will now start all these searches again when I’m ready?’. Anyway after a lot of back and forth, I closed all my tabs that night and went to sleep.

Some nights after that, on the night of June 12, 2021, I dreamt that I was reading in the library at Stanford University and I was talking to someone behind me. I didn’t see who the person was, but my spirit ‘bore witness’, that it was my best friend I was talking to. I woke up and shrugged the dream off, because I thought I had the dream simply because I had been worried about my Ph.D. lately.

I was working as a dish-washer over summer, so I went to work that day, as usual, but the Holy Spirit won’t let me be!!! He kept on nudging me to ‘check Stanford’, ‘Go online, check the website, ‘Okay, just check Stanford University’s PhD admission requirements’. I ignored severally and then later told my boyfriend, now fiancé 😍🤩 on Whatsapp ‘I dreamt I got into Stanford’. (This is why I know the exact date of the dream. I’ll attach some screenshots at the end of this publication, because pictures just add life to any write-up). He was more excited than I was, maybe because the other time I told him about how I had a dream of all the Visa interview questions I was going to be asked at the Lagos embassy for my F1 Visa, it happened exactly as I had dreamt (Link to the youtube video here: Testimony: How I got my US F1 VISA at first attempt)

Still on the same day, while at work, my heart rate began to increase really fast and I knew the Holy Spirit was not going to give me some breathing space, if I didn’t check. The palpitations became so severe that I couldn’t work anymore, so finally, I asked for a 15-minute break, checked the requirements for admission into the German PhD program for Stanford University and I saw ‘GRE general test scores not required’.

That was the beginning of the miracles.

As soon as I got home, I sent an email to one of the professors in the department, asking to speak with her and she replied delightfully within 40 minutes. We planned a zoom meeting that June (2021), she introduced us to the Director of Graduate Studies for the department and we spoke at length and extensively. Afterwards, we exchanged emails frequently and all our questions were ALWAYS answered. It was baffling to me, that professors in one of the top 3 institutions in the world would pay so much attention to us even with their busy schedule.

I know I was applying to one of the TOP 3 INSTITUTIONS IN THE WORLD, so nothing was guaranteed, but also, I was WORKING WITH GOD, so NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!

Remember I was just in the first year of my masters program. I didn’t know exactly how to explain what I wanted to do for a PhD, so I bought/loaned from the library about 4/5 of the books published by the professor I was certain I was interested in working with and READ THEM ALL.

Finally, the portal opened sometime in October 2021 and I sent in my  application by November 31. It was a daunting process. I would be remiss, if I failed to mention here, how my boyfriend edited my Statement of Purpose to perfection, that I thought ‘Wow! YES! This is IT! This is exactly why I want to get a PhD’. (If you’re reading this, thank you for holding my hand, baby).

All the while, I was actively working as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and working on 3 of my semester research papers, alongside several personal projects.

Needless to say, at the end of that semester, I was mentally drained.

It still didn’t make sense that we were just in the first year of our graduate programs and had already submitted an application for a Ph.D program. We mentioned it to quite a number of people and the reactions were very similar: ‘Stanford is very hard to get into. If anything, both of you should apply to different schools, you will make your chances slimmer applying to the same school and Stanford for that matter’. Their words were true and not spoken out of spite, but we both were only determined to see to the end of this journey before thinking of embarking on any other, because of THAT DREAM.

Fast forward to the morning of Tuesday, January 25 2022 at 07:48 AM, in our different rooms at the same apartment, we got an email with the title ‘Admission to Stanford’.

We got FULLY FUNDED admission a monthly stipend ALMOST THREE TIMES our current stipend. In a NON-STEM Ph.D program!

The panic-filled wait has ended, and a new journey is now about to start.

There’s a point you get to in life, that you wonder what could be bigger? Could there be more? But God NEVER STOPS WORKING!

I mean, I know there’s more that God has in store!

Remember God’s word to me at the beginning of this write-up?

If someone had told me that before my 24th birthday, I’d be on my way to one of the MOST DIFFICULT (actually THE most difficult) institutions to get into in the WORLD, at FIRST ATTEMPT, together with my best friend for my Ph.D., and that being the ONLY school we applied to???? I’m not sure I would have entirely believed.

Thank you to my Professors at UA, and my Graduate Advisor, who was and continues to be such a blessing to us!

This is my story of God’s GRACE, FAVOUR and goodness. YESHUA. The ONE that says and does!

Indeed my 23rd year was ‘G for GREATNESS’!

Happy 24th Birthday, Gift. The one whose STEPS are ORDERED!

Enjoy the pictures in descending order🤗: