It Wasn’t Just My Visa That Was Rejected, It Was My Entire Future

I started the war as a high school student. During the war, I was forced to evacuate my home, which was completely destroyed and burned down, and I lost my books and everything I owned. But I did not lose my passion for education.

During my seven evacuations, I began collecting whatever books I could find and continued studying using my old phone, which was barely working. Even during the severe famine, power cuts, and circumstances in which it was difficult to find even the most basic necessities, I did not stop studying.

I studied in a small room that I shared with my family, where five of us lived together in the same space. Despite all these circumstances, I managed to achieve a 94.4% average in my high school exams.

This achievement was not only the result of studying during the war. Throughout my school years, I maintained a high academic level, with an average of 99% during my first 11 years of education, and I also obtained English language certificates.

After graduating from high school, I spent months trying every possible way to find an opportunity to continue my education. Eventually, I received a fully funded scholarship to study Computer Science at SETU in Waterford, Ireland.

For me, this scholarship was more than just a university acceptance; it was an opportunity to keep my dream alive and continue my education after everything I had been through.

But after all this effort, my visa application was rejected. Among the reasons given were a study gap in my education, even though this period was caused by the war and the circumstances I had lived through, and a lack of proof of funding, despite the fact that I had a fully funded scholarship.

The visa refusal was a huge shock to me. For a moment, I felt that the dream I had worked toward for years had collapsed in front of me.

But I did not lose hope. I appealed the visa refusal, and I am still holding on to my dream of studying and continuing my education.