During the closing decade of the 80s, I set out on a low-cost journey to Europe with a friend. Because my friend was exploring enrolling in graduate studies in the Big Apple, we had arranged a two-week stay there on the way to London.
We arrived at the postgrad residence, a large 10-storey building on the Manhattan's Upper West Side known as International House. Setting down our luggage, we headed straight to the canteen, where we got some food, sat down, and started talking to people eating there.
Adjacent to my seat was an Iraqi man pursuing an engineering degree at Columbia University. He wanted to know what I did, and I told him that I had just graduated with a science degree and had been conducting research using an electron microscope.
He pointed out that there was an microscopy facility at the institution – right next door to the engineering faculty, which was the reason he was familiar with it. He recommended that I ought to seek a job with them. I laughed it off, telling him that I was soon departing to Europe and, more critically, I lacked a US visa.
A day later I toured the city, going back to the cafeteria that after dark. The engineering student came up to me and told me that he had set up a meeting for me with the director of the microscopy lab at Columbia. Since he had taken the effort, I went to the meeting – but straight off explained to my interviewer that I didn’t have a visa, so I was unable to accept the role.
In typical New York fashion – a metropolis where opportunities abound – she responded: “That can be arranged. When can you start?” I never got on that flight to London.
I held that position for 36 months. One of the benefits was that I also received no-cost classes at Columbia, and I used the opportunity to earn a graduate degree in global studies.
I lost touch with him and I don’t even know his identity, but his selfless gesture changed my life in numerous aspects. I lacked the courage or nerve to approach someone at an Ivy League university and seek a position. And, I had consistently hoped to take classes in another country, but lacked the financial means without that tuition waiver.
Critically, that gig at Columbia paved the way for a job in Zurich where I encountered my beautiful French husband, with whom I now have a family of four kids. It was a total sliding doors moment. That benevolent individual redirected my path in life, and I’m eternally thankful.
Can you recall the Most Generous Act a Someone You Didn't Know Has Shown for You?
Whether it's making your day to altering your path, we are interested in random meetings that have stuck with you.
Please share your story if you are of legal age, anonymously if you prefer. Your responses are protected, and are solely for the purpose of this feature.
