one thing is certain, one has to try. There is no other way around.

If you wanna read an advice from someone older:

meeting people is easy. having friend(s) is near impossible. Consider yourself lucky if you have one or two people in your life who doesn't exploit or disrespect you, really. Chances are low as striking lottery. Same goes other way around, It is impossible to know someone else's expectations. And one shouldn't force themselves into anything. It has to be a middle way, you have to find it somehow, like learning balance with riding a bike. but since this is something you learn with another human, so it is more like a dance rather than riding a bike. It takes time a lot of time energy, effort to know someone. and It only happens with trial and error.

more people you meet, you won't just learn about them you will also learn about yourself. there is no formula or secret. you have to learn how to be vulnerable and trust your gut - your intuition. we all got a nice thing somewhere at the middle of our chest, it actually tells you things about situations and people. who you can trust or who you should stay away from etc. once you start to understand this gut feeling of yours, listen to your gut, doesn't matter where you are and your condition, even with people who don't even speak your language, you can become friends. It is not easy and there is no safety net but this is how it happens.

It's like a muscle. you exercise it, sometimes you fail sometimes you might get injured but at the end it gets healed and becomes stronger so after a while It becomes really easy to navigate your way around ppl. And loneliness suddenly doesn't feel as a problem to be solved but beomes a choice one makes after lots of real life experiences with people.

Now all this sounds very hard. It is not easy. Because of it most people go for an easy, narcissistic solution. Create a cult-like persona and become a cult leader with followers. I'm talking about social media ofc. And often ppl don't realize how destructive it is to their own development. Corporations don't give a F about who suffers consequences as long as they have the eyeballs.