I was late to an English class in college, so I was the last one in the room, and there was only one seat left.

That seat happened to be next to a very beautiful woman. The type of woman that I was actually pretty comfortable around, because I knew it was pointless to even dream about getting a date with her. There’s nothing to be nervous about when you already know that you’re basically invisible to that woman and it’s never going to happen. So you can just be yourself. “Being myself,” in that case, meant not talking to her unless I had to for the class. I’m not the most social guy.

During the next class, everyone pretty much sat in the same seats. She sat next to me (I was there first that time). For each class after that, she and I kept our seats next to each other.

Occasionally, the professor had us discuss things with the people around us. Thus, I ended up having a valid reason to talk to her. It turned out that she was both beautiful AND friendly. She could easily have been one of those stereotypical “stand-off, scrub” types. You know… the young, beautiful women who are so convinced that every guy is trying to hit on them that they’re 100% over it all of the time.

Anyway, eventually I got even more comfortable chatting with her, even going so far as to forget that she was out of my league. So, one day, after class, I offered her a ride to the other side of campus, even though it would have been quicker for her to walk. It’s a small campus. But, my new (to me… bought it used) car was there in the lot, and I had to go to work, and she was walking that same direction.

She took me up on the offer. We chatted a little in the car.

The next few months are kind of blurry, but we were dating by the end of that semester. We ended up taking another English class together the next semester. For a guy like me… the guy who could never get a date in high school… to be dating the hottest girl in class… it was very satisfying.

I wrote pretty much this same exact answer two years ago, to another question. That is, to this date, my highest-upvoted answer:

Matthew Bates's answer to What is the luckiest thing that happened to you?

On a side note, I was back on my alma mater’s campus last summer, some 20 years after I met my wife there, and I found out that they’ve bulldozed to the ground the building where we met, and put a new building in its place. It was a little sad. This building exists only in pictures and memories now: