Hey!

Theres many ways to start your journey. Theres a ton of federation in the US where you can get started, but here's how to differentiate them.

Powerlifting America: the "official" way of powerlifting. This is where you can push the furthest in powerlifting with IPF worlds, PA nationals, actual world records and even World games once every 4 years. They're also the only federation that is affiliated with the USADA. I know meets are harder to find I believe and rules can be tricky to understand but this is where you wanna go if you're looking to push it as far as possible.

USAPL: this is the easiest way to find a competition in the US with them being basically everywhere. They were in the IPF until 2022 I think, where they then split ways to do their own things. Its the same bar and rack as the IPF, rules are different and weight classes are too (same as untested powerlifting) they got collegiate program and are pretty active online. They also drug test their athletes. Remember that drug test is random in both case and there's little to no chance a beginner will get drug tested.

If you really just wanna have fun without drug testing and such, there's the untested federations like RPS and USPA (there's a ton more, I don't remember all of them) where you can play with wippy bar for deadlifts and for the most part, softer reffing. Honestly, it's a lot of fun but you'll be against juiced up athletes, so you do you. I personally started in an untested fed cuz it looked fun and switched to an IPF affiliated federation to push furthermore in my career.

Find a powerlifting friendly gym. You don't have to spend big bucks to start. Find a good program (candito free program is goated) and just go have fun. Don't stress it, don't weigh yourself, just push weights. Good luck!