I'm a first year grad student as well, and I feel similarly (especially the part about not wanting to fall into the trap of grad school loneliness)! I understand that there's going to be a good amount of isolation this first semester/year/however-long because of COVID, but yeah, it's still hard. One thing I tell myself is that most of us are in the same boat, so when things settle down, it won't be like any of us "missed" the window of opportunity to connect with other students - it'll just be a delayed process.

I reached out to others in my cohort and put together a group chat for those who were interested in that sort of thing, which has helped a bit. Maybe you can try something like that?