Help with getting more "into" my character during sessions?

I'm a pretty new player in my first campaign [5e], and almost none of the players have played before (the DM is fairly experienced though). The DM has been extremely patient and kind with all of us getting our bearings with the game and how it works, giving us resources and answering questions, etc. We're also in an odd setup, where everyone else plays in person but I'm playing over discord since I'm going to school across the country. These sessions are the highlights of my week, and I really, really want to just have more fun and get the most out of them.

However, when we play I struggle to actually get into the game and make decisions as my character. I'm playing as a High Elf Cleric, and I've spent a lot of time before sessions fleshing out her backstory and trying to get a sense of her character, but for some reason during sessions, I'm never sure what to do (or what she would do) and get wrapped up in making the "right" decision. As a result, I don't end up saying or doing much, and end up feeling somewhat excluded, which isn't helped by me being online while everyone else is in person, since I end up not being heard a lot of the time, or being talked over. Other players also struggle to include me as a character in the story beyond my character's strict utility (ex. "you're the cleric so you should carry this healing potion"), so I feel like I'm intruding on things when I try to include myself during more "character-building" and non-combat sequences.

In addition to this, we have one player with a habit of derailing the story by constantly asking NPCs irrelevant questions or having totally pointless conversations while everyone else sits around waiting, which also doesn't help the feeling of exclusion and feeling like I can't get into it.

There's a part of me that's nervous about bringing this up to the group out of a fear of looking pathetic or like I care too much, and I also don't want to bother the DM with MORE stuff he has to worry about, since he's already doing so much and has been so patient. But I really want to enjoy the campaign more and also be a better and more engaged player, I'm just not sure how to do that.

TD;DR: I'm struggling with making decisions as my character during sessions and getting into sessions, so I end up sitting back and feeling left out.