Realtime Database Firebase Function trigger deployed from VSCode

I am very new to this realm of programming and I was running into some issues not with deploying my Firebase Function to my Firebase Project but testing the function itself and its execution.
The following is a test code I am using that should log the response when this testTrigger has been created with new data. But no luck, for some reason the deployment is successful but when I look at the logs they’re just notice logs that the deployment was successful, no execution logs. Anyone have any tips, I am quite lost.
Please let me know if you need more information!
Thanks ! 🙂

My code:

const functions = require("firebase-functions");
const admin = require("firebase-admin");

admin.initializeApp({
  databaseURL: "https://databaseurl123.firebaseio.com/"
});

exports.checkDatabaseTrigger = functions.database.ref("/testTrigger")
    .onCreate((snapshot, context) => {
      console.log("data added testTrigger:", snapshot.val());
      return null; 
    });

dependencies:

{
  "name": "functions",
  "description": "Cloud Functions for Firebase",
  "scripts": {
    "lint": "eslint . --fix",
    "serve": "firebase emulators:start --only functions",
    "shell": "firebase functions:shell",
    "start": "npm run shell",
    "deploy": "firebase deploy --only functions",
    "logs": "firebase functions:log"
  },
  "engines": {
    "node": "18"
  },
  "main": "index.js",
  "dependencies": {
    "firebase-admin": "^11.8.0",
    "firebase-functions": "^4.3.1"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "eslint": "^8.15.0",
    "eslint-config-google": "^0.14.0",
    "firebase-functions-test": "^3.1.0"
  },
  "private": true
}

Steps that I have followed:

  1. I deploy this very index.js script
  2. On my Firebase Functions I wait for the update of the function
  3. Then I go to my Realtime Database specifically this URL
  4. I then create the node and immediately type in a string of text like “Hello, World”
  5. Finally, I check the logs for any execution logs but to no avail

Hopefully, this is what you were looking for?

I have also tried to vary my index.js to call a 2nd gen cloud function but I get even more errors…