How do you deal with solitude?

I’m in my third year of graduate school and I feel like I still haven’t figured this one out. I have friends inside and outside of my program, but everyone is so busy that we barely have time to get together for a cup of coffee, let alone spend quality time together. My best friends are in other states or other countries, so we only talk very infrequently.

When I was in high school, I had a regular gang of friends that I saw every day and hung out with every weekend. In college, I had so many friends and buddies that I had trouble finding time to hang out with all of them between class work!

Now, I live alone, and I’m single for longer than I’ve ever been before (and I am doing this intentionally for a number of reasons.) I am an introvert so I need a lot of alone time, but I also get lonely pretty quickly.

I’ve tried to be more outgoing this year, going to more department social events, and also joining a great volunteer job once a week. But I still find myself feeling lonely a great deal of the time, and I would appreciate any cognitive or practical advice on how to view this/deal with this. Thank you.