Anne was the type of girl that made me freeze, stammer, and want to hide in a hole. She was three inches taller than me and had a beautiful face and a body that was a wonderful combination of curves and athletic muscle. She was my dorm neighbor and was always friendly, kind, and helpful to me. She also had a reputation that she earned early in her freshman year, when she disarmed a would-be knife-wielding rapist and left him with a broken wrist, a permanently damaged knee, and ten years in a penitentiary. That made a lot of guys timid around her.

I was a super dork, very awkward with my peers; with girls, completely hopeless. I had a brain that was always miles ahead of my colleagues, and an insatiable appetite for knowledge. My nose was always in a book. I avoided company.

You can imagine how surprised I was when I found myself in a notoriously difficult math class with Anne. She sat next to me and said, “I’m thrilled to see you’re in this class with me. I hear this course is really a ball-buster. Why don’t we study together?”

“Uh, uh, uh, OK.”

Well, it turned out that the class was as difficult as its reputation. We had to work very hard to understand the material and do the work. We made a good team. She was very smart, and our different thought patterns complemented each other. Somehow, when dealing with mathematics, I was able to relax and relate normally with her.