If you used Clearing in 2024, how did you find it?

How do I make/maintain friends out of uni?

So I've always struggled making friends. The majority of mine are from primary school or younger, and the only ones I've really made since then were because of a very determined mutual friend with a group chat.

I wanted to try making some in uni - but my first year was in the middle of covid, and nothing was running - and the second year was also very heavily affected, and there were very few in-person classes, and minimal societies running. And then I took a placement year.

So in effect, I went into my final year kinda alone. I didn't know anyone from my course or from societies . I did try to get involved, and actually started connecting with some people (i think) - but then I finished uni. And went home. And almost everyone that I knew was still back at uni.

Since then, I've really been struggling with loneliness. My friends from before uni are scattered over the country, most of them graduating a year before me, and with my current lack of job due to graduating late I don't really have the funds to visit - and everyone seems so busy. I kinda want to reach out to some of the people I met at uni, but we haven't really spoken since seeing each other in person, and I'm scared to be rejected/ignored/brushed off.

The hobbies I started at uni that allowed me to start making connections are relatively niche outside of uni from what I can tell (e.g. LARP), and I don't know how to go about finding a group, or people with similar interests, especially in my age range.

I tend to find navigating social situations really difficult, and tend to overshare or talk a lot or alternatively, clam up, unless there's some common ground I can start with, and that's made me pretty self conscious - meaning making good or close friends is really not an easy feat. I don't think I'm unlikeable at all, but I do think that I'm viewed as 'an okay person to talk to' rather than 'a person I'm close to' to most people, if that makes sense, and I don't know how to get past that.

Basically, I'm just really struggling with social connections, and feeling like I need some advice on what to do.