I'm currently studying a very competitive degree with a relatively large cohort. Despite that, word gets around like wildfire. The majority of the people (including myself) are in their early 20s, so gossiping is a big thing. I personally don't engage with it, but I will sometimes hear a thing or two in passing.
Anyway, I had a fling with someone very high up in the profession, which didn't work out, but I told some of my friends because I thought it was just funny. Like, the guy was a dick, and so I gave him the same energy back. This was like two months ago. My friend recently warned me that the information is now being spread around and painting me in a really bad light. This fling has no affiliation with our school, btw. No one knows him personally, just the title. On a separate note, about a month ago, I also started seeing this guy in our cohort as a casual thing. He's not well known in the cohort because he keeps to himself, which I respect. I told only a few people about it. Lo and behold, I find out this info has spread EVERYWHERE within weeks. For instance, a colleague who has no affiliation with my friend group told me that THREE different people told HIM that I was seeing this person. The worst part is that it got back to my ex (in the year above), and obviously, he's hurt, and the people who were once our mutual friends won't talk to me now or even interact with me. Which sucks because I've had so many conversations with my ex that I thought were mutual and respectful, including ones about him and me moving on and that being okay, but I guess not.
There are other things, too, like jokes I make that get taken out of context to paint me as a bad person. Or just words getting twisted.
Idk. I just hate that I can't control the narrative of what's being spread about me. I don't even know exactly what's being said. I'm a very bubbly, extroverted person with a tendency to overshare because I enjoy making other people laugh, but this makes me not want to trust anyone lol. Someone keeps leaking shit. I'm fighting the urge to crawl back in my old shell of introversion ngl. I guess all I can say is that I'm not really angry at anyone but myself.
In saying this, any advice on how to handle this? I know this isn't an uncommon experience. I hope some of you ladies can help me <3