AITAH for telling my bf to stfu?
So over the past 2 years, me (22f) and my bf (26m) have been in a relationship though i really haven't seen him much the last year. My bf is very opinionated on certain things and will speak his mind to me. As both he and I actually enjoy debating things with people who have other thoughts, this usually goes well. However, it's become more obvious that he doesn't really know where the line of "hey let's talk about this random thing that doesn't really affect us much and/or directly" vs "this is actually a part of my daily lifestyle since I was 2" is and I've mentioned this before directly multiple times (cuz I'm very blunt like that) and it can feel quite demeaning unintentionally. I will also mention that's he is always very supportive of my dreams and ambitions though he does do a reality check damper on my dreams (valid but why) and actually, in all the other stereotypical ways, would be considered the "perfect bf" (communicates, emotionally responsive, caring bleh bleh) can be a bit of a doormat but that's fine cuz I can step up for both of us lol.
This part is relevant but a bit long (TL: DR-bf hates cities, colleges, and doesn't think my job is good enough for me and college cost a lot and made my life difficult). I live in Savannah, a historic city in the US, as a SCAD student. I hesitate to call it a city cuz I visit NYC often and it is not even close to that so I call it the "southern Rockaway" for some reference. My bf hates cities and lives about 2.5hrs away from me just over the state border. He also thinks college is a stupid decision that sucks away all your money but supports my desire to go to school (already weird hypocrisy) and went and got a job at a warehouse and makes about 4x what I make because of it and thinks I should do the same but in my own field (?) or just leave my field entirely(??). I'm a full time graphic designer at a small print shop and am of the mindset that if I don't like my environment, I'm not working there lol. I love my small little city as I'm anxious about driving--working on it-- but I have an ebike and there's free transportation buses up and down town. I was also raised to know it's important to be able to get to places in case cars break down which is exactly what this place is without gigantic crowds of people. I love my job as it's a mom and pop shop and we're all basically like a work-family there and they've always been very welcoming for me and treated me like a valuable asset to the company. I also love SCAD because of all the resources, the communities, and the events that I can go to.
The biggest problem is that I barely had enough (actually I really didn't have enough) to make ends meet there cuz I couldn’t get any school loans and SCAD costs $21-24k/yr after federal aid (trimester so I would end up paying around $2-3k/month for 3 months at a time) and ended up having to become a half-time student to keep going. When I started as a freshman, I had to have 2 full time jobs and my own weekend as an art vendor and was a full time student at the same time to make enough money to do all that with extra before I met him and it sucked lol. Now I'm at my graphic design job and I made around $1200/month while in school and with rent being $800...that stressed me out more cuz I was past foundations so the hard stuff was here and it reflected in my grades and I could only get 2 private loans from the vultures of student loans sallie mae which ran out this semester and why I've finally decided to transfer.
(end of TL:DR)
Despite that, I still really love my school and the community I have there and I'm sad I have to transfer out to continue pursuing a degree in animation and am temporarily dropping my English degree (going to an online place that's $4.5k/yr now yey ig). But, really, it was only the fact that I was paying for SCAD that really made life in Savannah stressful for me.
My bf, however, hates everything here that I love and has been saying so since he met me 2 years ago despite me telling him to stop previously. It started with college by making comments like "everyone who goes to college is dumb and wasting their money and time and making us pay for it by not paying their loans back yada yada" on like 5min rants ended with a "except for you, you're doing a good job and I'm proud of you" 👁👄👁 over and over again. Then "I hate cities, Savannah sucks and I'm never going to say otherwise" and when my ebikes got stolen twice "yeah, it's a city, what do you expect? This is why I hate cities. Move to (location that absolutely needs a car that I can't afford in my field except in a city)". He hated that my ebike wasn't a car and downplayed its importance in my life when they got stolen until he actually rode mine once and was "reminded of his past moped" and then apologized for not caring (👁👄👁) he always harped about my job "needing to pay me more". I get paid $18/hr, literally one of the highest paid people my age in the city—the min wage is $7.25—in a non-trade-or-fundraising place. Especially in my field starting as an entry-level. I could get a new job. But not without the price of my happy environment and I gathered my own clients who hire me outside of work and get commission there and can sell my art there too (where else do you get all of that?? literally endless opportunities to succeed if i bring in businesses to work with us). As soon as I wasn't going to school at SCAD anymore I could actually afford things with extra and am doing happily and he's still hating on everything including saying that my time at SCAD was a "waste of my life and time". I'd say it was more expensive then need be, but my life? my time? I love it there and am actively saddened that I just can't afford it. I told him so in our last text messages and that all of the things going wrong in my life wasn't just cuz I live in Savannah and I love this place. He agreed to some of my points and then doubled down. Neither of us were yelling or anything cuz we do communicate like actual normal people. But, after 2 years of listening to it I said (copied and pasted here) "stfu about *my* city and *my* college. If it literally wasn't for the price tag I would be extremely happy here and I would have no problems whatsoever. So unless you're saying something about the price tag I'm pretty sure I've made it perfectly clear multiple times that I'd like you to stfu." and now he's not talking to me. It's pretty clear he's been saying it like he's trying to give me a wake up call and he's trying to "save me". But Savannah is also where we met and if it wasn't for scad, we def wouldn't have met either so like—?
It's not even spelled out lol. But I will say that I don't curse like at all so it's def not like a normal thing for me to have said but aita for telling him to stfu about the things I love? This def prob sounds like the tamest thing in this subreddit though lol. It's just that, why does he actively attack the things I love and is seemingly trying to push his opinions of things on me?
Posted Feb 17, 2026, 3:15 AM UTC