During the final years of the 1980s, I was embarking on a budget travel adventure to the European continent with a friend. Since my travel mate was considering pursuing a master’s degree in New York, we had booked a two-week stay there on the way to London.
We got to the postgrad residence, a sizeable ten-floor structure on the Upper West Side named International House. Once we unpacked, we headed straight to the cafeteria, where we picked up meals, took a seat, and engaged in conversation with people eating there.
Sitting next to me was an Iraqi man enrolled in an engineering program at Columbia University. He wanted to know what I did, and I shared that I had recently completed my studies with a scientific background and had been performing experiments involving microscopic analysis.
He noted that there was an electron microscope unit at Columbia University – right next door to the engineering faculty, which was why he was aware of it. He recommended that I should apply for a position with them. I chuckled at the suggestion, saying that I was soon departing to Europe and, even more importantly, I did not possess a US visa.
The following day I went out exploring, returning to the canteen that evening. The engineering student approached me and told me that he had set up a meeting for me with the director of the microscopy lab at Columbia. Given that he had taken the effort, I attended the interview – but right away informed my interviewer that I didn’t have a visa, so I was unable to accept the role.
In typical New York fashion – a city where everything seems achievable – she declared: “That can be arranged. When can you start?” I didn't board the aircraft to London.
I was employed there for a trio of years. A perk of the job was that I was granted complimentary education at Columbia, and I seized the chance to finish a postgrad program in international relations.
I lost touch with him and I can't recall his name, but his remarkable generosity altered my destiny in so many ways. I lacked the confidence or self-assurance to reach out at an prestigious college and ask for a job. Additionally, I had consistently hoped to take classes in another country, but wouldn't have been able to pay for it without that tuition waiver.
Critically, that gig at Columbia resulted in a role in Europe where I encountered my handsome spouse from France, 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.
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