I'm in the same position. I'm on a forced gap year due to finances, and in between the stress of trying to look for a job, I'm feeling lonely and a bit bitter that all my friends have left and I'm still stuck here. I have a few friends on gap years, but they're excited because they get to travel and won't be around much. Because I was in the local paper due to my results a lot of people have shown more interest in my Uni-going than they would otherwise have, and it makes me feel really miserable to say 'Nope, not going this year' and then having to explain that I won't be journeying through the jungle either. The only factors that have made it easier have been keeping busy, which from your post you're already doing, and trying to be optimistic. When I start a job, hopefully there will be other young people to make friends with. I'm going to make an effort to be less anti-social and get together with the other social groups of my friends that are left. Is there no one in your college left that you know that you could possibly get to know better? I know in my college at least, I wasn't particularly unfriendly with quite a few groups of younger students, and I didn't feel too awkward hanging around with them when my friends weren't around. Are there clubs outside of college you could join to make friends? Then you won't have the awkwardness of necessarily having to explain your situation to everyone you meet for the first time (which might happen if you tried making friends with college people). Also, write letters and emails to keep in touch with your friends who have left. I've never written letters regularly before and I'm quite besotted with the romanticised idea of receiving and sending letters this year.