During the closing decade of the 80s, I was embarking on a budget travel adventure to the European continent with a travel partner. Because my travel mate was interested in enrolling in graduate studies in New York, we had arranged a 14-day stopover there en route to London.
We got to the student accommodation, a big multi-story edifice on the Manhattan's Upper West Side called International House. Once we unpacked, we headed straight to the dining hall, where we got some food, sat down, and engaged in conversation with fellow residents.
Adjacent to my seat was an gentleman from Iraq studying engineering at Columbia University. He wanted to know what I did for a living, and I told him that I had newly finished with a degree in science and had been working on studies using an electron microscope.
He pointed out that there was an electron microscope unit at the institution – adjacent to the engineering department, which was the reason he was familiar with it. He proposed that I ought to seek a role with them. I dismissed the idea, saying that I was about to fly to Europe and, more critically, I did not possess a US visa.
The following day I went out exploring, coming back to the dining hall that night. The man from Iraq approached me and let me know that he had set up a meeting for me with the leader of the research team at Columbia. Since he had made the arrangement, I went to the meeting – but straight off told my interviewer that I didn’t have a visa, so I was probably wasting her time.
Reflecting the city's spirit – a metropolis where anything feels possible – she responded: “We can make that happen. How soon can you begin?” I didn't board the aircraft to London.
I held that position for a trio of years. One of the benefits was that I also received no-cost classes at Columbia, and I took advantage to finish a postgrad program in international relations.
I lost touch with him and I don’t even know his identity, but his selfless gesture transformed my future in so many ways. I didn't possess the confidence or nerve to reach out at an Ivy League university and request employment. And, I had consistently hoped to study abroad, but lacked the financial means without that educational benefit.
What's more, that job in New York led me to a role in Europe where I got to know my handsome spouse from France, with whom I am raising a family of four kids. That encounter altered everything. That benevolent individual redirected my path in life, and I’m eternally thankful.
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