I find the further I go down the rabbit hole of living kind of an unconventional life, the less people I have around to talk to :( On one hand, my life has never been as fun or as exiting as it is now. On the other, I’d like to vent and talk about stuff and feel my old friends won’t understand (and have mostly moved away). My newer friends don’t feel that close yet. I’ve just been having a bit of a tough time due to some recent events, and it feels lonely.
I feel this in my bones. As my interests get more niche, I feel like I'm slightly (and quite unintentionally) pulling away from some of my friends. I bonded with the people I'm closest with partly through our shared interests (then music, anime, video games, tabletop games). Now that I don't watch shows or play games much at all without them, I feel like I have less to talk about with them. They will always be irreplaceable, but the slight distance is saddening. I am making new friends with my newer interests, but as you allude to, the process is difficult and takes a lot of time. I wish you the best of luck.