During the closing decade of the 80s, I was beginning a backpacking trip to the European continent with a travel partner. Since my companion was interested in enrolling in graduate studies in NYC, we had booked a fortnight visit there on the way to London.
We got to the student accommodation, a big ten-floor structure on the Upper West Side named International House. Once we unpacked, we made our way to the dining hall, where we picked up meals, took a seat, and began chatting with fellow residents.
Beside me was an individual of Iraqi origin studying engineering at a prestigious New York university. He inquired what I did for a living, and I shared that I had just graduated with a science degree and had been performing experiments involving microscopic analysis.
He pointed out that there was an microscopy facility at the university – adjacent to the engineering department, which was how he knew about it. He recommended that I consider applying for a role with them. I chuckled at the suggestion, saying that I was soon departing to Europe and, additionally, I lacked a US visa.
A day later I ventured out, returning to the canteen that after dark. The engineering student came up to me and informed me that he had set up a meeting for me with the head of the electron microscope unit at Columbia. Because he had made the arrangement, I attended the interview – but straight off told my interviewer that I didn’t have a visa, so I was probably wasting her time.
As is common in NYC – a metropolis where everything seems achievable – she responded: “We can make that happen. What's your start date?” I missed my plane to London.
I worked there for three years. A perk of the job was that I got no-cost classes at Columbia, and I seized the chance to finish a graduate degree in global studies.
I never saw that student again and I don’t even know his identity, but his incredible act of kindness transformed my future in so many ways. I didn't possess the confidence or self-belief to contact anyone at an Ivy League university and ask for a job. Moreover, I had consistently hoped to pursue education overseas, but could never have afforded it without that tuition waiver.
Perhaps most importantly, that job in New York paved the way for a position in Switzerland where I got to know my beautiful French husband, with whom I now have a family of four kids. It was a total sliding doors moment. That kind stranger changed my trajectory in life, and I’m eternally thankful.
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