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In the late 1980s, I was beginning a low-cost journey to Europe with a friend. Because my travel mate was considering pursuing a master’s degree in New York, we had booked a 14-day stopover there en route to London.

We reached the student accommodation, a sizeable multi-story edifice on the Manhattan's Upper West Side called International House. Once we unpacked, we went directly to the cafeteria, where we got some food, found a table, and began chatting with people eating there.

Adjacent to my seat was an gentleman from Iraq pursuing an engineering degree at a prestigious New York university. He inquired what I my profession was, and I shared that I had newly finished with a science degree and had been conducting research involving microscopic analysis.

He noted that there was an microscopy facility at the university – close to the engineering department, which was how he knew about it. He proposed that I consider applying for a position with them. I chuckled at the suggestion, telling him that I was soon departing to Europe and, additionally, I did not possess a US visa.

The next day I toured the city, returning to the canteen that night. 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. Since he had taken the effort, I attended the interview – but right away explained to my interviewer that I didn’t have a visa, so I was likely not a suitable candidate.

In typical New York fashion – a city where everything seems achievable – she said: “That can be arranged. How soon can you begin?” I never got on that flight to London.

I held that position for three years. A perk of the job was that I also received free tuition at Columbia, and I seized the chance to earn a postgrad program in international relations.

I lost touch with him and I am unaware of his name, but his remarkable generosity changed my life in so many ways. I lacked the confidence or self-assurance to reach out at an Ivy League university and ask for a job. Moreover, I had long dreamed to take classes in another country, but wouldn't have been able to pay for it without that free tuition.

Perhaps most importantly, that role at the university paved the way for a role in Europe where I met my handsome spouse from France, with whom I now have a family of four kids. It was a total sliding doors moment. That kind stranger redirected my path in life, and I’m eternally thankful.

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