I've been on IRC daily for over 22 years.

I know exactly what you mean. I've gone from one tight knit community to another. In the between time I've either taken short breaks or been hanging out on freenode.

Right now I'm lucky enough to be in a tight clique of people with a private server.

Some of them have been on IRC for as long as it has existed. Most of us also meet IRL regularly.

If you find like minded people IRL you can start up IRC again.

Edit: Speaking of freenode. Just a few years ago I remember having a lot of fun in the wolf game channels with random strangers. It felt like the 90s again.