The Kindness of Unknown Individuals: The Way a Person I Had Just Met Supported Me Land the Position That Altered My Path

In the late 1980s, I was embarking on a low-cost journey to the European continent with a travel partner. Since my companion was interested in pursuing a master’s degree in NYC, we had arranged a two-week stay there on the way to London.

We got to the graduate housing, a sizeable 10-storey building on the Manhattan's Upper West Side named International House. After dropping our bags, we headed straight to the dining hall, where we picked up meals, found a table, and started talking to people eating there.

Adjacent to my seat was an Iraqi man enrolled in an engineering program at a prestigious New York university. He wanted to know what I did, and I told him that I had just graduated with a degree in science and had been working on studies using an electron microscope.

He noted that there was an research lab at the institution – adjacent to the school of engineering, which was why he was aware of it. He recommended that I should apply for a role with them. I laughed it off, telling him that I was heading off to Europe and, additionally, I didn’t have a US visa.

A day later I went out exploring, going back to the cafeteria that evening. The man from Iraq came up to me and told me that he had organized a discussion for me with the director of the microscopy lab at Columbia. Given that he had taken the effort, I attended the interview – but straight off informed my host that I didn’t have a visa, so I was probably wasting her time.

Reflecting the city's spirit – a city where anything feels possible – she responded: “We'll handle it. When can you start?” I didn't board the aircraft to London.

I worked there for a trio of years. A perk of the job was that I got complimentary education at Columbia, and I seized the chance to finish a master’s of international affairs.

I lost touch with him and I don’t even know his name, but his incredible act of kindness transformed my future in numerous aspects. I would never have had the bravery or self-belief to approach someone at an Ivy League university and ask for a job. Additionally, I had long dreamed to pursue education overseas, but could never have afforded it without that tuition waiver.

Perhaps most importantly, that gig at Columbia resulted in a position in Switzerland where I encountered my handsome spouse from France, with whom I am raising four wonderful sons and daughters. That encounter altered everything. That benevolent individual redirected my path in life, and I’m forever grateful.

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