“Some People Are Still in Middle School” — 54-Year-Old Shocked by Mean Girls Her Age in Pickleball

The game of pickleball, aka one the least sexy things you could do with a paddle, has grown in popularity over the years, and thus has become the subject of numerous viral media posts.

Like this TikTok video from a woman named Jewels, who encountered some unpleasant ladies while trying her hand at the sport.

"Mean girls at 54," a text overlay in the video reads as Jewels speaks into the camera while recording from her car.

"I'm 54 years old and encountering Mean Girls. At my age," she says, seemingly stunned by the experience she's just about to relay to her viewers.

"I decided to play pickleball. I took lessons with an instructor. I'm still not very good but I didn't have anybody to play with, so I went on Facebook in one of the pickleball groups. It's a beginner group, and I found a girl saying that she was looking for someone to play with. And she had never played before," Jewels continues.

"So I was like, 'Well, I'll play with you and I'll teach you what I know.' So we got together to play. Well she did what I did and started a group and started adding people that were beginners to the group and she texts me and said 'Hey let's play pickleball Sunday morning.' I said 'OK, that sounds good.'"

It seemed like Jewels managed to secure herself a pickleball playing partner, which is exactly what she was looking for in the first place. "Saturday night she texts me and she says, 'You know, if we can't find anybody else to play with, it's just the two of us. It'll be lame.' And I'm like, 'I don't mind,' and she's like, 'Well, some other time.' And I said 'OK, that sounds good.'"

Although Jewels was happy to play one-on-one pickleball with her new pal, it seemed like the woman wasn't really all that enthusiastic about paddling it up with just one other person — she wanted a pickle group, it seems.

"So, Monday night comes, and in the pickleball group that she had just created, everybody started talking about playing on Monday evening. So I said, 'We can use my courts,' and everybody was in agreement with that. Then, she pipes in, 'No, we're gonna use my courts, you guys have to come to my courts.'"

While Jewels found the way the woman went about insisting her pickleball courts be used in the game was pretty off-putting, she continued on with her story: "I [thought] 'OK, that's a little bit mean, but whatever.' So we go to her courts and then she cancels. She doesn't show up. So I'm left with the other two girls in the group that she had created," Jewels says.

"And one of the girls said to me, 'Hey, it would've been cool if you had come Sunday morning. There was only three of us; we couldn't play.' And I was like, 'What do you mean? She like canceled and told me that you guys couldn't come so she didn't wanna play with just two of us.' And they said, 'No, we played, she told us that you canceled.'"

Jewels couldn't understand the pettiness: "I was like, why would somebody do that, why? I can't play pickleball with them? And for some reason I guess this girl doesn't like me and she started adding people to the group and removed me."

"And I'm just like, what in the mean girl s---?" she asks in to the camera as the video ends.

Judging by some of the comments relayed by folks who responded in the comments section, it would appear that the "mean girl" phase isn't a "phase" at all — they just grow up.

"I’m 67 and I hate to tell you, the mean girls will continue being that way until they die," one person wrote.

Another penned: "My mom's in her 50s and has always told me 'mean girls don’t grow up, they just grow older.'"

It seemed like more than a few people remarked that maturity doesn't necessarily come with age: "When I was young I thought adults would act like adults. I was wrong. Some people are still in middle school."

"How does one find a genuine, non-competitive, supportive friend? I’ve given up on new friends," someone else commented, seemingly distraught over being unable to connect with folks who act accordingly and have their best interests at heart.

Have you ever had to deal with mean girls? Do you feel like folks tend to mature over time, or are you in your golden years and have come across plenty of middle school bullies with AARP cards and bad hips?