A determined Nigerian lady named Angel Riemen Asein has finally achieved her long-held dream of earning a university degree, after facing over a decade of delays, setbacks, and unanswered efforts.
After completing her secondary education, Angel sat for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination five times, from 2012 to 2018. Every year, she scored good grades, yet no admission came.
Still, she refused to give up. During those waiting years, she enrolled in a pre-degree program at Ambrose Alli University in 2013, and later pursued a diploma in Maritime Engineering at the University of Benin from 2014 to 2016—all while still chasing her dream of earning a full bachelor’s degree.
Fortunately, in 2018, Angel’s dream finally started to take shape when she gained admission into Lagos State University (LASU).
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But even then, life threw more challenges her way. In 2019, Angel became a mother, and an accident during pregnancy forced her to defer her studies. Soon after, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, adding another year of delay.
Through it all, Angel kept pushing. She watched as many of her peers graduated, went on to serve in the NYSC, earned master’s degrees, and started new lives. Sometimes, she watched in silence—tears in her eyes—but she never lost focus.
Her resilience and determination paid off as she graduated with a second-class upper degree in Fisheries and even earned multiple awards in recognition of her excellence.
For Angel, the journey was not easy, but she finished because she refused to quit. “I am proud to say I am my parents’ first graduate,” she wrote.
Angel stated that her achievement is not just hers—it belongs to the little girl who never stopped dreaming, to the mother who fought to rise, to the parents who gave everything, and to every woman who has ever been told it’s too late.
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