Know the limits, even in genorosity

My first semester of my 9th year, I was under some impression that everything I did was being watched by all of the other freshman, taking in every aspect of their peers to decipher who to look up to, who to become friends with, and who to avoid. I took the phrase "be the person you'd like to meet" way too literally and I probably still do in some ways. I would say hi to every single person I'd ever talked to (even if it was only one time)  in the halls, I'd always talk about what other people wanted to talk about, and whenever someone asked me for money for the vending machines on campus, I think you know what happened. Basically over the course of the first 4 months of school, I had probably lent out over 60 dollars (alot of money in 14 year old currency). However not one person ever paid me back. I realized a pattern taking place. People would hang around me for like 5 minutes, and then "out of the blue" ask me for money and not even make an effort to say a word afterwards. One day (after "lending" 2 people money), I didn't have any left. I'm usually okay with this and just wait a few hours to get home and eat, but today was Valentine's day and they were selling the results to the compatibility test at my school and everyone was buying them. I really wanted to see mine, just for fun, however I was clean out of money. I asked my friend to borrow 3 dollars and assured her I'd pay her back ASAP (which I did). The moment she handed me those three dollars I had a realization. It was cemented in my intentions to pay her back as soon as possible, but was that everyone's intention? Truth is, these kids probably had plenty of cash between allowance, lunch money, babysitting I don't know. I had to learn the hard way, but it's still a lesson learned. Yea if a friend of mine asks me for a dollar I'll lend it to them, but sometimes it's really important to know the limits, even in generosity.