I’m 30… and I just realized my boyfriend might be a Year-1 Yahoo boy

Hi Relaks, I want to rant. And before anyone says it, yes, I know this might sound ridiculous. My friends already think I’ve lost my mind. That’s actually why I’m writing to you instead of them. I need to get this off my chest without being laughed out of the room. So here’s the situation. I’m 30 years old. And I just found out that the man I’ve been dating might actually be a Year-1 university student pretending to be a grown man doing a PhD in the US. Let me start from the beginning. I met him on Twitter during Detty December last year. A brand had posted something about the perfect Christmas gift for your babe and joked that relationships can start anywhere — even in the comment section. So I commented something silly like: “Lol God, when oo?” A few minutes later, someone replied. He said, “God now oo. Can I shoot my shot? I’d like to take you out for dinner.” I thought it was cute. So I told him to DM me. And that’s how everything started. We began talking almost every day. The funny part is that when he first messaged me, I didn’t even reply immediately. I only responded on Christmas Day. When I finally did, he apologized and said he would have replied earlier but he had just traveled back to the US. According to him, he had come to Lagos for the holidays and had already returned. Yunno like IJGB... I told him I was sad because I was actually looking forward to the dinner date. He said we would still meet someday. From there, our conversations became a routine. We would text every day, talk every night, and slowly get to know each other- the perfect love story right? He told me he was studying Chemical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma and that he was currently doing a PhD program there. He had stories about campus life, research, professors — everything sounded believable. And before you ask: yes, we FaceTimed. Multiple times. He had a beard. He looked decent. Maybe a little young, but not suspiciously young. Some people just look youthful... right?. He also seemed very private. Whenever I asked for his Instagram, he would laugh and say he wasn’t really active there and preferred to keep his life offline. And honestly? I didn’t mind. Who doesn’t like a man that isn’t all over social media? a privateee man. He ticked so many boxes. He was kind, sweet, attentive. He called me every day. Sometimes I even thought it was a little too much attention, but at the time I just assumed he really liked me. Looking back now, maybe that should have been my first red flag. Because how do you have that much free time to call someone every single day? Anyways, Fast forward to early January. His responses started becoming…. epileptic. That’s the word. The energy wasn’t just the same anymore. Sometimes he wouldn’t reply for hours during the day and would only text me later in the evening. When I complained, he explained that his schedule was intense because of his PhD work and also because of the time differences. I believed him. Then February came, and things got worse. It was literally Valentine’s season and he was barely romantic anymore. He wasn’t calling as often, wasn’t texting the same way, and I kept asking him if something was wrong. Every time, he would apologize and say it was just work stress. Little did I know that during that time he might actually have been preparing for university entrance exams and attending extra classes. But of course, I didn’t know that yet. And yes, again, this guy was actually very romantic, he had sent me food, flowers and even cake, on several occasions. One evening in late February, I was venting to one of my girlfriends about how strange he had been acting. She listened to the whole story and then casually asked me a question that changed everything. She said: “Are you sure you’re not being catfished?” I laughed immediately. “Catfished ke? I know this guy. I have his Twitter.” So I sent her his handle. And that’s when she started investigating. The first thing she checked was a new feature on Twitter that shows account location activity. According to it… his location was Nigeria. I still wasn’t convinced. I told her, “Well, he was in Nigeria in December. Maybe that’s why.” But she wasn’t satisfied. So she started digging deeper. She checked his tagged photos on Instagram. Then she suddenly stopped and asked me: “Doesn’t this guy look like your boyfriend?” I looked at the photo. It was a picture of a boy in a school uniform at what looked like a graduation ceremony. The caption mentioned Class of 2024. I immediately said, “That’s probably his younger brother.” But my friend kept digging. More comments. More photos. More tags. Eventually we found another very clear picture posted by one of his mutual friends. And that’s when it hit me. The face. It was him. My heart literally dropped. Because the person in those photos looked exactly like the man I had been talking to for months… except he looked like someone who was probably just starting university. At that moment I started panicking. I didn’t know what to do. All my friends started laughing and saying I had been catfished and that I needed to confront him immediately. They joked and started calling me 'yahoo girl' or 'pablet' But the truth is… I can’t. And I know you might think that makes me foolish. But there are a few reasons. First, I think I might have actually fallen in love with him. Second, part of me still wants to believe there’s some explanation. Maybe he just graduated recently. Maybe he’s older than he looks. Maybe he’s actually in university now but still planning to travel for his master’s later. I honestly don’t know. And the worst part? I’m at a stage in my life where I genuinely want to get married. So now I’m stuck with this secret. I can’t talk to my friends about it because they already think I’m crazy, and I don’t want them to know that I’m actually considering staying with him even after discovering all this. So I’m here in the Relaks Rage Room, just venting. I don’t know if I should confront him. I don’t know if I should walk away. But I do know one thing. If this story turns out to be exactly what it looks like… Then I might be a 30-year-old woman who accidentally fell in love with a Year-1 Yahoo boy. And honestly? I don’t even know whether to cry or laugh. ⸻ What would you do if you were in this situation? Should she confront him or quietly walk away? Let’s hear your thoughts.