I have been immersed in the D&D community for over a decade of my life. I've owned most of the books of the last 10 years, and I have listened to hundreds of hours of podcasts, consumed every comic there is to consume, ready days of articles, etc.
But my friend group has always been either uncoordinated, in different parts of the world, or just different places in life that things have never lined up for us to actually play the game. FINALLY things have lined up just right and I am DMing not one but TWO groups!