there's actually great resources for getting started online. There's a site called start playing games dedicated to matching new people to a DM. Note that services like that cost money. There's also the virtual tabletop roll20 which has a group finder for you to find a game. It will have a mix of free and paid games. Alternatively, you can crowdsource that such as on r/lfg on reddit (unfortunately the LFGs here on lemmy don't seem to be active enough to find games), or through various discord servers, including the official D&D discord. Another that has reasonably active LFG type sections to try is the Fantasy grounds (another VTT) discord.
For in person play, you can also look in to local gaming stores that might run adventurer's league, which is the sort of 'official' play wizards of the coast sanctions at local stores and at conventions.


Just an update: after a few hiccups and a late start, its been chugging along; It's around 1/3rd of the way done, currently. Didn't get started until late yesterday, and the process died a few times, but its been running just fine most of today. If i had to guesstimate, it's probably gotten a good ~12-14 hours of run time to get to this point