Respect should be earned, not demanded.

If an older student wanted to sit where you were sitting at a cafe, would you get up and move, or would you tell them to sit somewhere else?

This young woman was sitting comfortably in her seat at a quiet café near her campus.

Another student came up to her and demanded that she give up her seat.

Read the full story to see how this story plays out.

AITA for not giving up my usual study spot to a fourth year just because she asked?

I (18F) am a first-year med student.

I usually study at this quiet café near campus.

It’s small, but it has free Wi-Fi, and I like it.

This young lady has a preferred seat in the cafe because it’s near a power outlet.

I’ve been going there pretty consistently for a while now, and I usually take this seat tucked in the corner with a power outlet underneath the table.

My laptop is really old and it dies a lot, so I kind of just constantly have it plugged in.

One day, another student came up to her, demanding to take her seat.

A few days ago, I was in the café doing some flashcards while my laptop charged.

A student I don’t even know came up and asked me to move because that’s “her spot during test weeks.”

Which, first of all, I’ve literally never seen her there before.

And second of all, it’s a café. It’s first come, first served. There are no reserved seats.

She refused to move.

I already had all my things out on the table (all my pencils, papers, etc.), so it would have taken me a while to pack them back up and move.

So I told her that sorry, but I was already sitting there and that there were a lot of other spots with power outlets if that’s what she was looking for.

The student got passive-aggressive.

She got passive-aggressive and said, “It’s just a chair, don’t be so territorial.”

I said, “Yeah, it’s just a chair. There’s a bunch of other chairs that are exactly the same as this chair. I’m not moving all my stuff.”

The student stood there for a while, waiting for her to move.

She kind of just stood there for a couple of minutes and stared at me, hanging around really awkwardly.

I’m pretty sure she was trying to make me uncomfortable on purpose in hopes that I would leave.

She was still waiting for me to move, but I just ignored her.

After a few minutes, she left. She was really huffy and called me a not-so-nice name.

She learned that the student is in her fourth year and has a habit of bullying freshmen.

Later, I asked one of my friends who’s a fourth year (one of my older sister’s friends) if they knew who she was, and they said that they did.

She said that she’s also a fourth year and that she’s known for giving freshmen a hard time.

She just likes picking on first years, apparently, and most of them do exactly what she wants, so she’s probably not used to hearing first years tell her no.

She wasn’t trying to be rude.

I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful.

I just didn’t think it made sense to move when I was there first and had my things out on the table, especially when there were plenty of seats that are pretty much exactly the same and were empty.

But still, she’s wondering if she should have just given in to the other person’s request.

Still, I don’t know.

Maybe I should have moved just because she’s older than me, out of respect, or even just to avoid conflict.

I didn’t really think it was that big a deal though.

So, AITA?

The fourth year who tried to bully her into moving is the one who was in the wrong. It was good that she finally heard the word “no.”

Let’s check out the comments of other people on Reddit to this story.

This user shares their personal thoughts.

Indeed!

Here’s another valid point.

Sounds like a bully, says this person.

Finally, short and simple.

Being older does not give someone the right to act entitled.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.