I guess some people have all the luck. By the time I graduated:
- my family was across the country
- neighbors have never been really friends
- close friends mostly went to San Fransico. No one was in my town.
- Meetups didn't form any relationships.
If there was no work I'd just be lonely, and not for the lack of trying.
At one point I went to a lot of tech meetups and I think they're cool for other reasons but not for forming meaningful relationships. The things that have been most fruitful in that are ones that bring people together for value-based reasons: religion, volunteering, organizing for a specific local cause or movement.
In between are activity-based things like book clubs, sports leagues or game groups. They are good for meeting people to hang out with but individuals in them tend to be transient and I haven't formed many deep friendships from them. Sometimes the line gets blurry though, like martial arts dojos & boxing gyms are activity-based but tend to form tight bonds.