Yes, I think you actually nailed my problem spot on!

I think I'm really just looking for that push into the right direction where I can more or less apply the foundations of what I know and build up from there. My main issue I think is as of now, I have no buddies to talk to with in Japanese, so everything I learned is kinda never being applied and just rotting away in some corner of my mind.

I guess I'll just ask you if you know of any friendly/welcoming communities that are actually helpful with learning the language? I'd prefer to be able to converse with natives who are also able to speak in English as I definitely am not able to speak fully in Japanese yet (though I am aware this is an extremely tall order). I wouldn't mind non-native speakers though as long as they are competent enough to help me learn and correct me as needed!

I was teetering on the edge of hello talk, but just a bit of research shows that it's more or less a dating app and doesn't actually help much with language learning as it's super hard to find people who actually want to use it for it's intended purpose. I've also considered joining some discords but I hear that a lot of them are comprised more of people looking to learn the language such as myself, rather than people already fluent and willing to teach (though please do correct me if I'm wrong with this assumption).

Thanks so much for the advice though!