In the final years of the 1980s, I set out on a budget travel adventure to Europe with a friend. Because my companion was considering enrolling in graduate studies in the Big Apple, we had arranged a 14-day stopover there on the way to London.
We reached the graduate housing, a big multi-story edifice on the Upper West Side called International House. Setting down our luggage, we headed straight to the cafeteria, where we grabbed food, found a table, and engaged in conversation with other diners.
Sitting next to me was an gentleman from Iraq pursuing an engineering degree at a prestigious New York university. He wanted to know what I did for a living, and I told him that I had newly finished with a degree in science and had been working on studies using an electron microscope.
He noted that there was an microscopy facility at Columbia University – close to the school of engineering, which was how he knew about it. He proposed that I should apply for a position with them. I dismissed the idea, explaining that I was about to fly to Europe and, additionally, I did not possess a US visa.
A day later I ventured out, going back to the cafeteria that evening. The man from Iraq came up to me and let me know that he had set up a meeting for me with the head of the electron microscope unit at Columbia. Given that he had gone to the trouble, I showed up for the discussion – but straight off informed my interviewer that I didn’t have a visa, so I was probably wasting her time.
In typical New York fashion – a city where everything seems achievable – 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. One of the benefits was that I got no-cost classes at Columbia, and I seized the chance to finish a graduate degree in global studies.
I lost touch with him and I don’t even know his name, but his remarkable generosity altered my destiny in multiple respects. I lacked the bravery or self-belief to approach someone at an Ivy League university and request employment. Moreover, I had long dreamed to pursue education overseas, but lacked the financial means without that free tuition.
Critically, that gig at Columbia led me to a position in Switzerland where I encountered my wonderful partner, with whom I currently share a family of four kids. It was a total sliding doors moment. That kind stranger changed my trajectory in life, and I’m forever grateful.
Can you recall the Kindest Gesture a Unknown Person Has Once Performed for You?
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