Sometimes words have different meanings to different people, but is it worth arguing about?

He threw shot put in high school, ran warmups, and wore the shortest shorts anyone had ever seen—and then he called it “track team.”

Years later, his ex insisted that was very untrue.

Read on for the full story.

AITA for saying I was on the track team in high school

In my senior year of high school I did shot put on the track and field team.

I attended practices, ran the warmup run with the runners, and participated in meets, but I was never particularly good.

I’m fairly certain the coach didn’t take my participation very seriously (since I didn’t fit in the regular tack uniforms, I did meets in the extremely short running shorts, and a team windbreaker which was longer than the shorts).

Years later, his girlfriend found his phrasing misleading.

Forward to my mid-30s.

While we were dating I at one point mentioned to my ex girlfriend that I had been on the “track team” in high school, and then explained that I did shot put.

She insisted that this was a deceptive phrasing because saying “track team” implied running.

I contended that “track in field team” while technically correct was awkward phrasing, and that while I wasn’t very good I was at least proud of having participated in a sport outside my comfort zone, and wasn’t being intentionally deceptive. I did later in life take running up and do a half-marathon at least.

This somehow became a longstanding disagreement in that relationship.

There are a lot of technicalities here. Who’s really the AH?

Let’s see what the comments on Reddit have to say.

This person is glad they broke up.

This person is pretty defensive of the sport.

This person says it’s certainly not a lie.

Track shorts don’t make the athlete—or the lie.

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.