In the closing decade of the 80s, I was embarking on a low-cost journey to Europe with a companion. Because my travel mate was exploring pursuing a master’s degree in New York, we had booked a two-week stay there before heading to London.
We reached the graduate housing, a sizeable multi-story edifice on the Manhattan's Upper West Side known as International House. After dropping our bags, we headed straight to the canteen, where we got some food, took a seat, and began chatting with people eating there.
Sitting next to me was an individual of Iraqi origin enrolled in an engineering program at a prestigious New York university. He inquired what I did for a living, and I explained that I had recently completed my studies with a scientific background and had been working on studies involving microscopic analysis.
He mentioned that there was an microscopy facility at Columbia University – adjacent to the school of engineering, which was why he was aware of it. He recommended that I ought to seek a job with them. I chuckled at the suggestion, explaining that I was heading off to Europe and, more critically, I lacked a US visa.
The next day I went out exploring, returning to the canteen that after dark. The engineering student approached me and informed me that he had set up a meeting for me with the director of the microscopy lab at Columbia. Since he had made the arrangement, I went to the meeting – but straight off told my prospective employer that I was without a work permit, so I was unable to accept the role.
Reflecting the city's spirit – a metropolis where anything feels possible – she declared: “We can make that happen. How soon can you begin?” I never got on that flight to London.
I held that position 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 postgrad program in international relations.
We didn't cross paths after that and I can't recall his name, but his selfless gesture transformed my future in numerous aspects. I lacked the confidence or nerve to contact anyone at an Ivy League university and request employment. Moreover, I had consistently hoped to study abroad, but wouldn't have been able to pay for it without that tuition waiver.
What's more, that gig at Columbia paved the way for a job in Zurich where I got to know my handsome spouse from France, with whom I now have a family of four kids. That encounter altered everything. That benevolent individual redirected my path in life, and I’m always appreciative.
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