I’m 21M and I’m so lost in life

I’m about to finish university with a bachelors in nursing next year. I recently just got my very first job ever at a hospital working with children as a CNA. To be honest, I really love my job, but recently I realised that I don’t have a life outside of school and work. I try to keep myself busy with work and school because I have nothing else to do outside of those.

I don’t have friends. I mean I used to… I had two best friends in high school who I’d talk to regularly, but one moved back to Ohio and the other to England. I would pick up the phone whenever they needed something, but they don’t do the same thing for me. At my university, I don’t really have friends. I only get to hang out with people when they want to study, but when I ask them to go out for coffee, dinner, or do an activity they’ll give me their available times then just ghost me once I give suggestions on what to do. I don’t know how to improve my social life. I just want someone to talk because right now theres several days or even weeks where I don’t have a face to face conversation with someone even if it’s just small talk.

The other thing is… I feel like I’m so behind in life. It took me 21 years to get my very first job. I’ve never dated anyone, and some of the people into uni are already married or engaged. I’m not gonna lie I cried the other day because I realised that the reason why I love my job and working with kids is because I want to have kids of my own one day. I really want to have my own family one day, but I can’t even find friends to talk to. I’m scared I’ll die later in life on my own because I don’t have any siblings, I only have my parents who divorced when I was young, and all of my relatives are in a different country. I feel like I have absolutely no one.

I regularly go out to places to do things I like such as going to museums or eating out by myself, but I don’t know how to meet people. I’ve even tried going to the bars by myself, but I’m such a shy person and I have a little social anxiety that I never know what to say.