To be fair, for life to exists the way it does on earth took a long series of against heavy odds events to happen. Our planet ended up in just the right orbit, possibly thanks to a one in a trillion collision with another protoplanet at the beginning of our solar systems life (so to speak). The solid iron cores speed of rotation gives us just the right amount of magnetic field to not get fried by solar radiation, but still allow enough in. We have all the needed resources for life as we know it. Water, heat, and all the required chemicals to make up genetic life. Plus tons of other variables that I can't think of right now, never mind no extinction level events happening in the speck of time that humanity has existed to wipe us out. Any number of slight deviations from this course, and we wouldn't exist at all. So while odds are there is life elsewhere in the galaxy and universe, it's highly possibly that we, while not unique in our evolution of intelligence, are one of a handful of species in the galaxy to get as far as we have.
As for us not having met any other species that have gotten further than us, there are plenty of theories as to why. Some say we just aren't important enough to talk to, others say we may inhabit a worthless spot in the galaxy that nobody bothers to visit. Then there are the theories that other civilizations never travelled outside of their own solar systems for various reasons. And of course, the long shots theories of us being unique, or somehow being the most advanced in the galaxy.
None of this matters though, since everyone with a brain knows were are just a giant computer simulation.