You've made a transition from school, where you saw the same people day after day, year after year. From this point on in life, you'll never have the same daily structure. People will move, find new jobs, get married, and be on a different schedule from each other.

Right now, you're responsible for your own happiness, your own life. You have to define your traditions from now on, as you have to define your family and yourself. The old definitions aren't going to fit.

Take a deep breath of freedom, Matt. You aren't bound by the past.

Don't worry. Nature abhors a vacuum. This feeling will pass. You'll fill in the blanks.

Roan had a Dr. Seuss quote on his profile: Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.

The older you get, the more you'll have to smile about.

In my experience, it does take a while. High school and college are so structured and when that structure falls away after graduation it's like, whoa, where is my age cohort? What happened? It's probably a bit harder for you too because you haven't settled into a job yet... It does happen though. At some point you start recognizing people in your neighborhood and saying hi to them even if you don't visibly have much in common and it gets better from there. It definitely also helps to take part in some kind of organized activity though, where there's a chance of seeing the same people at the same time. Hiking or working out or whatever.

EDIT: LOL, and if you're looking for a target demographic, I had a lot of luck making friends with little old ladies especially, and I am sure a clean-cut gay couple will have that much more.

Transitions take time and familiarity. I moved to Minneapolis at 27 and without a boyfriend. It was hard making it home at first. I'd never lived here before. I made friends at work and my new haunts. That's the easiest avenue I found. But you have to take chances. Once you do and find like souls it becomes home. It took me three lonely months and I made lifelong connections. That's my experience.

When I moved to London, UK, my friends - my close circle - and all my acquaintances suddenly ended up over 900 miles away, 2 hours by plane. It costs money to see them and moreso, it costs time that suddenly became very precious. When I'm visiting family (divorced parents, therefore you have to plan an extra trip), it hardly leaves much time for meeting friends, either from "high school" or university (and since the high school ones are scattered all over the place, some in Prague, some elsewhere, it's really hard for all of us to get together at one place).

So I moved away from what defined me for over 27 years. Westie is new in London as well, even if he didn't move as far as me, we both still are new in a city in which we haven't studied, so there are no friends from school. We've been living here for 2 years now and our circle of friends has only just started to form. You meet people at work only and if you are lucky and they are sociable (which is not given), then you might start building new connections. Of course, you can meet new people outside your workplace - but honestly, how many times you strike up a conversation with strangers in the subway, in the shop, gym, or wherever you spend your leisure time? 

We haven't cracked that one yet. We are not spending all of our time closed in our flat, but still even when we go out, there are not many possibilities how to form a group of friends. After all, at school, on a study stay abroad, there are always tens and hundreds of people who are in the same situation as you are, so the opportunities to socialise are abundant. Everybody wants to get to know other people, you see each other frequently and regularly, there might even be socialising events organised specifically for that purpose. When you leave school, everybody just wants to earn some money and get on with their life. Go home, get shopping, cook dinner, etc. There's suddenly no time for going out on a trip together, or just simply go out to some pub or a bar and have fun.

So, to conclude this rambling, I understand your feeling. And I have similar experiences. I haven't made many new friends yet, but still, London has become my home. What I find as the defining moment is when you visit your old home town and realise that you're looking forward to coming back, Home = where you live your day-to-day life, where YOUR BED is, where you're comfortable on your own. I always say I am home everywhere, but truly, now I am at home only in London. :-)