I’d argue ‘the hard way’ is probably shooting large format slide film and developing it yourself ;), but seriously congrats on this foray into the exciting world of analog photography!
Just don’t get too attached to any Fuji film stocks…
Raised on analog film (spent many hours in darkrooms both in high school as well as in elementary school). 35mm was the largest film size I tried.
When I went back to analog a few years back I introduced myself to medium-format as well as the tried-and-true 35mm. I think I was surprised at how inexpensive (eBay) and yet capable the older medium-format cameras were.
I confess to having put down the 35mm cameras though after I saw what the medium-format could do [1-3]. By all means, if you want to dabble in analog, consider an old waist-level, "box camera" and a roll of 120 film (the original Instagram square format, ha ha).
Many of the cameras (twin-lens reflex) have just the one lens. (Or if they have other lens it's an odd sort of attachment — probably not worth the hassle.) There is a lot to be said to "using your feet to zoom" with a fixed (prime) lens.
I did play with both a Mamiya and Bronica that had bayonet-style lens mounts. I cannot say from memory which lens I used with each. They were primes to be sure. I'm thinking maybe about 150mm or so? I believe that because of the film size, they're equivalent to about half their length in 35mm. So a 150mm lens is more like a 75mm lens for a 35mm camera (a decent portrait lens).
Generally though, not an "action" camera, so telephoto was mot so interesting. People and land/cityscapes look best, IMHO so a wide to medium-angle lenses were the best.
Just don’t get too attached to any Fuji film stocks…