Where do I start (I’m playing again after a long break)

I played this game a ton but took about a year off when my baby was born and I’m starting to get back into it again but I am overwhelmed lol. Do I unlock new worlds and characters? Level up my friends to 10 who weren’t before? Do all the side quests? Open my floating islands? Progress the main storyline?
Everytime I log in there just feels like so much to do I usually just wander lol. What order do you typically do things in or do you just play and whatever comes up comes up?
There’s also starpaths I think and realms you can pay for now so no idea where to even begin. I think almost every character has a blue thing over there head letting me know they have something to do with a quest and it’s a lot haha
I loveeee this game but trying to do everything at once is def not working