In the final years of the 1980s, I was embarking on a budget travel adventure to the European continent with a companion. Because my friend was exploring starting a postgraduate program in the Big Apple, we had arranged a fortnight visit there before heading to London.
We got to the graduate housing, a big ten-floor structure on the UWS named International House. Once we unpacked, we headed straight to the cafeteria, where we grabbed food, found a table, and began chatting with people eating there.
Beside me was an gentleman from Iraq studying engineering at a prestigious New York university. He inquired what I my profession was, and I shared that I had recently completed my studies with a degree in science and had been working on studies using an electron microscope.
He mentioned that there was an electron microscope unit at the university – close to the engineering department, which was how he knew about it. He proposed that I ought to seek a position with them. I dismissed the idea, telling him that I was soon departing to Europe and, more critically, I didn’t have a US visa.
A day later I toured the city, returning to the canteen that night. The man from Iraq walked over to me and told me that he had arranged an interview for me with the leader of the research team at Columbia. Given that he had gone to the trouble, I showed up for the discussion – but immediately informed my host that I was without a work permit, so I was unable to accept the role.
Reflecting the city's spirit – a place where anything feels possible – she declared: “That can be arranged. How soon can you begin?” I didn't board the aircraft to London.
I was employed there for three years. A perk of the job was that I was granted complimentary education at Columbia, and I seized the chance to finish a graduate degree in global studies.
I never saw that student again and I don’t even know his full name, but his remarkable generosity changed my life in numerous aspects. I would never have had the courage or self-assurance to contact anyone at an Ivy League university and ask for a job. Moreover, I had always wanted to take classes in another country, but lacked the financial means without that free tuition.
What's more, that role at the university paved the way for a position in Switzerland where I met my beautiful French husband, with whom I am raising a family of four kids. This was a pivotal life event. That kind stranger redirected my path in life, and I’m eternally thankful.
Can you recall the Nicest Thing a Unknown Person Has Ever Done for You?
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