I matched with a guy from my evening school on Hinge, and what should’ve been a cute connection turned into a total nightmare. He added me to his ‘inner circle’ Snapchat study group, but the second they realized I took ten years out working retail before coming back, the snark started. Passive-aggressive memes about my background, and now the whole clique freezes me out in the hallway. It feels like high school all over again and I’m genuinely dreading every single class. Do I call him out or just shrink into the back row?

First things first: take a breath and shake that knot out of your stomach. Their pathetic Mean Girls routine says zero about your worth and everything about their own flimsy egos. You had the guts to return to adult education and rebuild your life from scratch. That takes grit. Meanwhile, this bunch is wasting their tuition pretending to be the popular kids by the lockers, acting like insecure teenagers who accidentally got hold of adult ID cards. Matching on a dating app was an invitation to flirt, not a waiver to be turned into the punchline of a deadbeat group chat. Leave that Snapchat group quietly—no dramatic exit speech, just vanish from the roster. If the guy or anyone else smirks or tries to get a rise out of you in class, hit them with a deadpan stare and say: "Did you actually have a question about the assignment, or are you still stuck in tenth grade?" Then turn back to your notes and let the silence hang. You showed up for your future, not their validation. Wear your messy, non-traditional path like armor—it just means you've lived in the real world while they’re still playing schoolyard games.