Monica Nair
Photos and Graphics Editor
For anyone who’s ever been burned by a mooch, you’re not the only loan shark. Mooches, or people to take things from others, rely on their lenders, or friends who always pay for their spending. NCHS students explained their experiences of borrowing and lending, and how sometimes the cycle of mooching can get out of hand.
Junior Caroline Muller knows what it’s like to mooch. “I mooch off my friends on a daily basis, but it’s usually for food,” she said. “I eat my friends’ food and take bites from their lunches. I get hungry a lot, and I know that they don’t mind sharing.”
Senior Ryan Prindle explained his own tricks to borrowing. “I am such a mooch,” he said. “I’m really greedy about saving my money and I always hate spending it on food; I feel like it’s a waste. So, sometimes I’ll ‘accidentally’ forget my wallet and ask a friend to pay for me.”
It’s not hard to spot a mooch. “You become a mooch when you frequently borrow from someone else,” senior Jessica Brower said. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be money. If someone buys food and you always ask to have a bite; if someone buys something and you always ask to borrow it, that’s considered being a mooch. It’s not yours but you don’t want to spend your own money on it.”
For senior Kylie Glover, mooching off friends can leave bad feelings. “I feel so guilty a lot of the times; sometimes I don’t hang out with people because I know I owe them money,” she said. “I avoided my one friend for a really long time because I owed her money and I would just pretend I was busy so I wouldn’t have to pay her, but it didn’t really last.”
However, the blame is not easily placed. “Someone can get a reputation of being a lender by being too kind and also being a bit of a pushover,” senior CJ Altman said. “I always say ‘yes’ when it comes to sharing, more than I should. I want to make people happy and help them as much as I can, even if I know they’re just mooching”
Senior Sam Curran also falls under the category of being a loan shark. “I let my friends mooch off of me all the time because they know that it doesn’t really bother me,” he said. “I want to be able to help them, and I’m not the type of person that will be mad if someone asks to borrow something from me.”
However, senior Emily Pugliese has a “give and receive” system with her friends. “I always say yes, but it’s usually a two way street with my friends,” she said. “If they need five dollars then I’ll lend it to them because my friends’ will probably end up buying me a coffee or something another time. It always evens out.”
Being the lender, however, can have its downsides. “It does bother me that my friends mooch off of me sometimes,” CJ said. “It can get annoying to always be the go-to person for money can become frustrating at times because it’s your own money that you’re not sure if you’ll get it back.”
Freshman Parker Chini explained how he thinks lending is more of a judgment call. “If you have a good friend that you can trust, then its okay to lend to them,” he said. “But you have to be careful with who you’re lending to because some people never pay others back.”
Some students have found ways to stop their mooching habits. “I think mooching can stop if you learn to control your own spending and not relying on your friends all the time,” Kylie said. “Being a mooch is a terrible thing in the end. People don’t want to let you borrow things because they know it will take you forever to pay them back.”
However, lenders are also responsible for continuing this cycle. “You can break the cycle of being a lender by learning to say no,” senior Audrey Casinelli said. “If you think someone is abusing your friendliness, you need to tell them, and stand up for yourself.”
In some cases, however, there may not necessarily be a cure for the excessive borrowing or lending. “You can’t stop being a mooch because there really isn’t any punishment or consequence for doing it,” Jessica said. “You can’t stop the cycle of being a lender either because you’re always going to want to be able to help your friends.”
