Given that galaxies, star systems, solar systems or planetary systems and everything else that has happened to our own systems has happened everywhere else then it's extremely likely that life is also a repeating phenomenon under the right conditions.
We already know
extremophiles exist on our own planet, there's no reason to think that there aren't simple life forms in our own solar system.
On a universal scale, we'd be pretty have to be pretty inward looking and egotistical to believe there's not other life in the universe and given that it's likely there is then some of that life will likely exhibit or possess what we call intelligence.
However what Mark says is correct, the stupendous distances involved mean that us travelling to even the nearest star systems would take longer than generations can live and the reverse is also true. No alien civilisation will be any more able to beat the known laws of physics than we can.
Nature on earth has it's own way of sorting stuff out, perhaps nature on a universal scale keeps intelligent life far enough apart from other intelligent life to prevent catastrophic consequences of the meeting of various life forms. Just as likely, however, is that there may be regions of the universe that have multiple intelligent life forms living close together that engage in interplanetary trade or communication at least.
Whatever those signals are, we will not survive long enough to exchange a message because in 3 billion years our sun will have started to die and expand.