It's never too late to find friends. But, you may want to re-evaluate your "everyone just wants to use you for something" philosophy. Perhaps you're being too cynical. In a less cynical way friendship is based on this. In any relationship people need to be doing something for each other. Otherwise there is no real motivation for the relationship. Of course there is a line where someone is truly taking advantage. I wonder if you just need to move your line a bit.