Once I figured out that it does not matter what instance you join, it was simple. I initially kept trying to join lemmy.world but it timed out for a couple weeks. Tried signing up with a smaller instance and they had to manually approve my account which never happened. Finally found lemm.ee which let me sign up.

The Lemmy site could do a better job in making it clear that the instance you join does not matter that much. Currently the site tells you to join one that matches your interest which is a bit silly considering there are a myriad of subs on each of them.