I'll also try to avoid writing an essay. Basically, the fun started in middle school when I was the stereotypical nerd, big glasses, good grades, and had a hard time making normal friends. Interestingly enough, I got my shit together in eighth grade and learned to get along with my classmates. However, I ended up going to a boarding high school. Again, not the easiest time making a ton of friends, but due to our shared circumstances I made a few very close friends. When graduation time came around, everyone I knew went to different colleges.
College, interestingly enough, was when it all went downhill. My freshman year, I was a bit snobby and considered myself too "mature" for my dorm-mates since I was attending a public university (albeit a good one.) I got over that pretty quickly, but I was unable to really connect with anyone I lived with, even though I would eat with a certain group every night and go out on the weekends sometimes. I ended up moving dorms just because I could, not because of any real issues, and did not get to know anybody in the new place. Moreover, by this time I had also made a good female friend, we would have lunch together frequently and would watch TV in my dorm. However, she started dropping hints about how much she wanted to date somebody, about how much she liked skinny white guys (pretty much me), and she started spending a lot of time around me. Having no experience with girls (boarding school was all-male), I panicked and essentially ghosted on her.
Over the next three years of college, I essentially made no friends. It was a combination of social anxiety keeping me from joining events, and sabotaging myself with awkwardness when I would attend. I got caught in that wonderful Catch 22 where I had no friends, but I couldn't go out to places/things to make friends because I had no friends to go with.
I just got back to the US from China, and was unable to make a single expat friend. I would attend events, but just like college I was still just a weirdo who showed up by himself. I made a post in an expat sub and somebody pitied me enough to chat with me on a messaging service, but avoided any attempts to actually meet up and hang out while I was there.
I'm back in my home town, but since I went to boarding school I've lost all connections with people I knew earlier here. I even had a local tell me I can't really even consider myself from my hometown, even though I was born here and spent the first 14 years of my life here.
I hope my story was interesting to you.