~snip
And I see this everywhere. The four of us in the room all came from the same school. Same age. Same opportunities. Three wheeling in heavy debt, trynna keep it up with side hustles. One with a positive balance who never needs to be a corporate slave again.
The world is filled with too many people with this type of approach towards life. Only a very few can tell what is good for him/her. People don't understand the fact that driving a good car and living in a big house does not actually tell the true financial capability of a person. I have heard of several funny stories of people that chase after this good things, while living in a financial mess just to keep up with the lifestyle. I'm not saying that these things are bad, moreover, there are part of necessity, but for a person who completely understands his/her financial capability, there ought to be some boundaries.
My only advise to you OP, is that there shouldn't be any form of intimidation. Besides, I see no reason why they should have high expectations for you when they clearly didn't offer any assistance in the first place.