NEW LIFE UPDATE: MOVING TO NIGERIA IN 2019 FROM USA WITH NO REGRETS

Moving to Nigeria was an exciting thought that quickly became a nightmare in one flash.

May 19, 2019, I arrived in Abuja, Nigeria, with the utmost excitement you can expect from someone who hasn’t seen her family for the past four (4) years. On seeing my mom and elder brothers at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, tears kept rolling, and laughter took over next. The joy was out of bounds.

Through the excitement and the beautiful scenery in Abuja, I still felt like I was in the USA; it hadn’t hit yet, haha!

In less than a week of my moving to Nigeria, we traveled down to our family house in Ekiti. And slowly, it began to feel like home as we know it: the heat, excessive noise, sandy environment, flies, and more. Regardless of all that, I was joyful seeing my family.

Mind you, I returned to Nigeria with the hope that I would return to the USA by August to start my doctorate program at the University of Florida. But by late July 2019, that hope was shattered with the reality of no funds to sponsor my doctorate program.

Oh, dear! I was devastated! The future was bleak. So many uncertainties and fear of the unknown clouded my thoughts. And, questions rolled in.

On a Wednesday afternoon in Ekiti, Nigeria, an old-time friend who was shocked to see me asked: When did you get home? Why didn’t you stay in the USA? It’s better there.

Several folks have bombarded me with these questions and similar ones from July 2019 to date. Initially, it was a sad question; it got me worried, and I couldn’t handle it appropriately.

Anytime I was asked, I would answer, “I love Nigeria, that’s why I am home,” even though I knew full well that I came home initially to visit my family before returning for another degree. But that was the most protective answer I could give as it shut the door for further questions, and I preferred it that way.

By the last week of July, my mentor, Timipre Wolo, encouraged me with her life story and the word of God. She prayed with me and strongly encouraged me to apply for NYSC while God works out the rest.

INITIAL HOPES SHATTERED. WHAT NEXT?

Two(2) months after moving to Nigeria, I began the NYSC registration process for international students.

With God’s help, my family, a few friends, and a God-given optimism, I started my youth service, and I would then meet another family that made serving in Nigeria as a Youth Corper a beautiful experience.

During my service year, particularly in September 2019, I felt a strong leading in my spirit to get serious about my blog. Upon starting my blog in January 2019, I blogged on a free WIX site for roughly eight (8) months. But by September 2019, God pressed me intensely to get serious with SARMLife (He gave me this name in late 2018).

One thing about my relationship with God is that He always provides solutions to every problem I have. And up to that point in the above paragraph, He had always blessed me with all my needs. But He was about to teach me how to yearn, trust, have faith and work toward His plans for my life.

By October 2019, I began planning towards this leading God gave me. It led to the start of the SARM Book Club (currently run by its members), SARMLife Skill Acquisition Sponsorship Program, and the first SARMLife Digital Skills Training (formerly SARMLife Digital Skills Internship).

As someone NOT IN MY HEAD, you are thinking, why are you sponsoring people when you need sponsors yourself? My answer to that question is simple: God’s ways are not our ways. He clearly instructed me to start our sponsorship program, which made no sense, but now I understand why God made me do it.

MOVING TO NIGERIA: HOW 2020 WENT IN A NUTSHELL

2020 was the turning point year for me both mentally, physically, spiritually, career-wise, etc.

At the end of the 5-month SARMLife Digital Skills Training in July 2020, and with less than 500 followers on Instagram but over 25,000 site visitors on the SARMLife blog, I began to see why God pressed me to take my blogging journey seriously.

After July 2020, online opportunities came from every angle. Ruth was learning, SARMLife was growing, and we were expanding. My vision was getting clearer. God was also helping me to shed dead weights in my relationships.

By October 2020, a year after God instructed me on SARMLife, it became clear that God just made me work toward His plans for me. Yes, I want to be a doctor primarily to help more human beings, but I can also help humans, even as a blogging coach. Not only that, but I can also build wealth unimaginably that will be the answer to my 2019 prayers.

Do you see how God works? Oh, there is no way I can tell my story without my closest friend, God. NO WAY!!!

He turned my life around. By November 2020, He would begin my spiritual transformation and would shed even more dead weights.

At the end of 2020, five significant things happened.

1. My earthly purpose got clearer–SARMLife.
2. I had completely healed from my past.
3. My faith in God grew like wildfire–I became dangerously confident in His plans for me.
4. I drew closer to God more than I had ever done my whole life.
5. I lost close relationships–the uncomfortable but important part of growth.

WHAT WAS YOUR MENTAL HEALTH LIKE THROUGH IT ALL?

It was a one-day-at-a-time journey.

I’m one of the strongest minds, but having to stay back in Nigeria while seeing my friend, whom we both got admitted to Pharmacy School, crushed me daily! I was happy for her while equally sad and lonely in this new world God was carving for me.

Losing close friends broke me even more. I would hurt, but no tears. I had consistent panic attack episodes. It was tough, but God surrounded me with enough love to sink in.

Remember the question about why I came back? That question didn’t stop hurting me until late December 2020. I wasn’t hurt because my life turned upside down; truthfully, I lived a good life on the surface. I was hurt because I am a big dreamer, goal-oriented, and had a plan for my life, which no longer seemed to work out in my favor.

If you ask me the same question now, I will tell you this.

I am still in Nigeria because God knows my future, and He knew that if I hadn’t returned to Nigeria when I did,

• My faith in Him would not be STRONG as it is now.
• Spiritually, I’d be weak.
• I wouldn’t be living the life He planned for me.
• I wouldn’t be the RUTH ADEYEMI I am now.
• I would still be drowning in sin and past regrets.
• I wouldn’t have impacted as many lives.
• There would be no SARMLife.
• You wouldn’t have known me, and vice versa.

Mentally, I am still not the strongest, but God’s word has been my refuge.

POST NYSC: HOW IS 2021 LOOKING FOR YOU?

Yo! I am a first-generation online wealth builder. How do you think it’s looking? Haha!

I’m kidding! God gave me my 2021 script, and I live every line exactly as planned, so things are working out fine. You will soon see.

In the first quarter of 2021, SARMLife almost made half a million naira. Mehn! That’s a win for us! The second batch of our Digital Skills Training students graduated on Thursday (July 1, 2021) with an 83% finish rate compared to last year’s 70%. Another win!! Oh! Our 2021 ENYFL Sponsorship beneficiaries will round up their Web design/development training in two weeks too.

I am now a full-time blogging coach with over 100+ trained in Digital Marketing, Blogging, and SEO. I travel a lot, collaborate with brilliant minds in the online space, and currently working on a project that will soon set SARMLife rolling on a fireball while I pursue every goal God has given me.

It’s been a beautiful year, and I currently have no regrets about coming to Nigeria. NONE AT ALL!

The content of my blog has been a blessing to several people from different parts of the world, and I am grateful that I yielded to God when He instructed me to stay back, even though it wasn’t an easy decision to make. If I were in the United States, I wouldn’t have had the time to devote to all of this.

As I conclude, I’d like to share my last thought.

Being in Nigeria at this point made me realize that the strength/progress/vibrancy of an individual is in the company he/she keeps. Before moving to Nigeria, I was perceived as strong in the faith, and otherwise, even I thought I was strong. Until I came home, and God opened my eyes to the errors of my ways.

I kept some friendships I shouldn’t have kept; I accepted belief systems I shouldn’t have; I let down my guard when I shouldn’t have.

You are not strong all by yourself, and it’s worse if you keep the wrong company, especially as a believer. You will miss out on so much greatness God has planned for you. So many goodies that should have been yours would mix in the mud while you think all is still well.

I have learned a lot; I am still growing, and I am humbled to say that I have impacted more lives through SARMLife by agreeing with God to be in my home country at this point.

Finally, He showed me my future, and I saw Doctor Ruth in it. Blogging coach Ruth is there, too, haha!

Remember, the fact that everyone thinks a thing is bad for you doesn’t mean it’s bad for you. Trust God and have faith in His plans for you. The rest is easy!

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