Only ten million light years? Just a short jaunt down the inter-galactic highway.
It still amazes me, that given the number of galaxies out there, the number of stars in each galaxy, even with the physical limitations required for life to exist, some people persist in maintaining that our tiney speck of dust is the only inhabited world.
I used to agree wholeheartedly with you, even writing a paper supporting that view. That was the argument made famous fifty years ago by astronomers Willy Ley (iirc) and Carl Sagan.
To the uninitiated it seems like an irrefutable argument, residing as it does in the largest possible numbers: a hundred billion galaxies each housing a hundred billion stars, rotated by innumerable planets.
However, science has progressed considerably since Sagan, to put it mildly; he took into account only two dependent factors. Now there are literally hundreds of dependent factors known, all of which must be within narrow parameters for any life to exist, must less intelligent life.
For a list of those parameters, see "Probability for Life”. It posits at least 10²² planets in the universe but finds that, "Thus, less than 1 chance in 10^282 (million trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion) exists that even one such life-support body would occur anywhere in the universe without invoking divine miracles."
And we're already on one.