The Stanford Business Reporter

For good or for worse, love rarely turns out the way we plan. The following are some of our classmates’ more interesting experiences:

Brian Gladstein, MBA2

So I met this girl on the Internet…I know a lot of bad stories start out that way, but hang in there. Anyway, we emailed each other for about a month and grew to like each other. Soon, we started speaking on the phone. I made her laugh. We decided to meet.

We settled on a small bookstore downtown. We hadn’t yet seen pictures of each other so she told me she’d be wearing a light blue top with a gray skirt and she had short red hair. That’s how I’d know her. Easy enough.

I arrived at the shop a little early so I went for a short walk around the block. It’s a crowded area, and there were people everywhere. As I rounded the corner back to the bookstore, I started wondering if she too had come early. So many girls were wearing blue and gray…were any of them her?

Then I start to realize--the woman directly in front of me has short red hair. “Ok,” I think, “Gray skirt? Check. Light blue shirt? Check…But, what are the chances?” And, it was just at that moment that it happened. To the best of my memory, I started to walk past her to get a glimpse of her face, and she slowed down a little. Then our eyes met, and we knew! 

It was awkward. We weren’t inside yet, and I suppose that I was just not yet mentally prepared for the introduction right there and then. She claims I bolted, and I really can’t disagree. But, I won’t forget the look on her face either, and although she won’t admit it, she froze. Right there on the sidewalk she stopped dead in her tracks like a deer caught a pair of headlights and froze. So, I hightailed it into the bookstore. I wondered if it really was her or if I just imagined the whole thing, but soon afterwards she did follow inside. I went up to her, and we officially introduced ourselves.

Fast-forward two and a half years, and everything turned out okay. Jody and I got married in December, and we couldn’t be happier. But, she still gives me plenty of grief about running away from her the first time we met.

Laura Folse, Sloan

During undergraduate school, several friends of mine and I became very interested in the subject of prison reform and decided to develop a pen-pal relationship with some prisoners at a facility in New York. (We were very cautious and wrote them under 'assumed names' and we used a post office box, so we couldn't be traced when they got out of prison!) Anyway, it became very clear during the correspondence that the prisoners were not very interested in discussing the plight of the poor and the injustice of the American judicial system. They were more interested in, shall we say, 'stimulating' talk. 

After a few letters were exchanged between my pen pal, and me he finally sent me a 'Dear Jane' letter to break off our relationship. He let me down gently, though. He simply explained that he was 'too busy' to write me! Too busy! He was in a maximum-security prison! Talk about being dumped! I was too boring for a pen pal in prison!

Vikrant Bhatia, MBA1

Yasmin and I met at a party that she threw in Dallas. I saw her when I first walked in and promised myself that I would meet that cute girl before the night was over. So, after a couple of hours, I meandered my way over and we ended up playing a game of bar-style shuffleboard. She wasn't scoring properly and wouldn't listen to me when I tried to explain the rules. She continued scoring incorrectly and I decided she was a no-go. As hindsight revealed, she thought I was quite arrogant as well. (I think I accidentally insulted her friends towards the end of the night).

Two weeks later we were stranded in the Houston airport together. I was supposed to be on a noon flight to Dallas, but because of client issues, bad taxis, and traffic, I was number 129 in standby-by line for the 6:30 pm flight. As I turned to exit the line, I saw Yasmin standing just a few feet behind me...number 135 in stand-by. She had decided to sacrifice her confirmed seat for her manager who was trying to make it to her sister’s baby shower and was not confirmed on a flight. Being the recipients of a fortunate, albeit random, circumstance, we chatted for about 2 hours. When number 129 was called, I "accidentally" missed my flight so that I could be on the next one with her. I asked her out three days and we're still dating 3 years later. 

Peter Brimm, MBA2

My best dating experience…refer to Prince's ballad, Darling Nikki. It happened just like that, except her name was Wilhelmina, and really all she said was get lost.

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