welcome, excellent source of information here. Keep an open mind, thick skin and some patience and it is doable with a healthy dose of dedication.

Apprentice section is a good place to start, some good links in there to help get the formalities out of the way so you can move into the meat and potatoes of what your falconry can become. Living in Louisiana the options are cut down to unfortunately not a whole lot but fun and no joke falconry can be had here with the effort. Read, read and read some more so when live conversation is to be had you're ahead of the game

Good luck and don't be shy