I left home pretty early (~17) for university. Over time, I made my life busy, and I realized that me leaving was a bit traumatic for my parents, especially my mom.

So I'd make the effort to call her every day, even if it was just sometimes a 1-2 minute call to say hello. Much later, I initiated stuff, like go home and actually spent time with them (and not leave the house), or invite them over for breakfast or lunch. My life got busy, and they could see that, so I would end up seeing them maybe once a month or so, despite living just an hour apart. As for the non-family part, when I first moved out, I wasted a lot of good opportunity by being in front of my computer doing nothing productive.

More recently, living alone means doing stuff on my schedule, and my schedule alone. I was really lucky to be surrounded by good people, and I made a couple of friends. And through them, I met a lot of cool people who exposed me to a lot of fun things. And I'm a very shy person normally, I just stopped caring what people thought about me, and maybe it made me look more confident and approachable?

As for living independent, feed yourself, keep clean (yourself and your place), be healthyish, and you've done a good part of 'independent living' correctly.

Walk around town, find cool spots, don't be afraid to talk to people who you work/study with, some might just ignore you, or snub you, some might talk. If you're not comfortable talking to people, enrol in an improv class, or a public speaking class, get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Do NOT spend all your time alone on your computer playing games. If you're not in shape, go to the gym, talk to people who are fit, and those trying to get there. Find out if your community centre offers classes of some kind. Check their catalogue, enrol in some of them.