What it feels like to reach out to people.

So i'm curious if this is a unique experience to me.

I've found now that i'm working abroad that where I once was able to talk to people fairly frequently, I feel like I have to constantly push to get any kind of communication with people that aren't my parents. Perhaps this is just a symptom of being 7 hours apart from most of my old friends, but I hardly ever receive messages from anyone at this point. It's like I have to cry out into the void and hope someone decides to answer back to me, which happens fairly infrequently. 

I don't know if this is the same for anyone else, but I personally prefer that people message me rather than the other way around, even if it takes me by surprise. I feel like if you receive a message from someone, that shows that person genuinely cares enough to talk to you rather than flaring up the anxiety of you bothering someone else who doesn't care enough unless you are the one actively approaching them. 

Maybe i'm just too lazy to maintain genuine friendships, but it feels like a lot of the interactions I had with people that I thought were my friends were transactional as part of my hobbies. It's only now that i'm alone in the truest sense of the word that i've come to realise my flaw, and i'm not sure how to correct it. I also happen to be a chronic overthinker but I think that comes with the territory.

What do you all think?