During the final years of the 1980s, I was beginning a budget travel adventure to the European continent with a friend. Because my friend was exploring enrolling in graduate studies in New York, we had planned a 14-day stopover there en route to London.
We arrived at the student accommodation, a large 10-storey building on the Manhattan's Upper West Side known as International House. Setting down our luggage, we made our way to the cafeteria, where we got some food, found a table, and began chatting with other diners.
Adjacent to my seat was an Iraqi man studying engineering at a prestigious New York university. He wanted to know what I did for a living, and I shared that I had just graduated with a degree in science and had been performing experiments involving microscopic analysis.
He mentioned that there was an electron microscope unit at the institution – adjacent to the engineering department, which was how he knew about it. He suggested that I ought to seek a job with them. I laughed it off, saying that I was about to fly to Europe and, more critically, I did not possess a US visa.
A day later I toured the city, coming back to the dining hall that evening. The engineering student came up to me and told me that he had set up a meeting for me with the head of the electron microscope unit at Columbia. Because he had made the arrangement, I went to the meeting – but right away told my interviewer that I was without a work permit, so I was probably wasting her time.
Reflecting the city's spirit – a place where everything seems achievable – she declared: “That can be arranged. What's your start date?” I never got on that flight to London.
I worked there for 36 months. A perk of the job was that I was granted no-cost classes at Columbia, and I used the opportunity to finish a postgrad program in international relations.
I lost touch with him and I am unaware of his name, but his incredible act of kindness transformed my future in multiple respects. I lacked the confidence or self-assurance to contact anyone at an elite institution and seek a position. Additionally, I had consistently hoped to study abroad, but wouldn't have been able to pay for it without that educational benefit.
Perhaps most importantly, that job in New York paved the way for a position in Switzerland where I met my handsome spouse from France, with whom I am raising four wonderful sons and daughters. This was a pivotal life event. That kind stranger set me on a different course in life, and I’m forever grateful.
Can you recall the Kindest Gesture a Unknown Person Has Ever Done for You?
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