I Want a Friend to Talk to

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to make a friend and actually maintain the friendship. I constantly ghost people because I lack in the social skills department. Responding and contributing to conversations is hard, since I never know what to say. It's so difficult for me to reach out to people. I'm about to lose my Husband for a few months when he deploys to a combat zone, and since I have no family close by, I'll be alone with our 2 boys, who are too young to talk. I'm desperate for a friend at this point, so I don't lose my mind to my anxiety.