During the late 1980s, I set out on a backpacking trip to the European continent with a friend. Since my travel mate was considering 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 graduate housing, a big multi-story edifice on the Upper West Side called International House. After dropping our bags, we went directly to the canteen, where we picked up meals, took a seat, and engaged in conversation with people eating there.
Sitting next to me was an gentleman from Iraq enrolled in an engineering program at an Ivy League institution. He wanted to know what I did, and I explained that I had just graduated with a science degree and had been working on studies involving microscopic analysis.
He noted that there was an research lab at the institution – adjacent to the engineering department, which was how he knew about it. He proposed that I should apply for a job with them. I chuckled at the suggestion, explaining that I was about to fly to Europe and, additionally, I did not possess a US visa.
The following day I toured the city, going back to the cafeteria that night. The Iraqi student approached me and told me that he had set up a meeting for me with the head of the electron microscope unit at Columbia. Since he had made the arrangement, I attended the interview – but straight off informed my prospective employer that I didn’t have a visa, so I was probably wasting her time.
In typical New York fashion – a metropolis where opportunities abound – she responded: “We'll handle it. How soon can you begin?” I didn't board the aircraft to London.
I was employed there for 36 months. A perk of the job was that I got free tuition at Columbia, and I used the opportunity to complete a postgrad program in international relations.
We didn't cross paths after that and I am unaware of his full name, but his selfless gesture changed my life in multiple respects. I didn't possess the courage or self-assurance to contact anyone at an Ivy League university and seek a position. Moreover, I had long dreamed to study abroad, but lacked the financial means without that tuition waiver.
What's more, that job in New York resulted in a job in Zurich where I got to know my handsome spouse from France, with whom I am raising a family of four kids. It was a total sliding doors moment. That kind stranger set me on a different course in life, and I’m forever grateful.
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