Do I have to try to mine bitcoin in order to verify peoples transactions? I started investing in bitcoin about a year ago, did minor research and decided mining wasn't worth it because of the odds against finding a bitcoin.  Lately I've started wanting to verify peoples transactions because of the high price of bitcoin and because from my understanding if you verify a transaction you get a small cut for the work of your computer.
The thing is I still don't know if I want to mine, I can't leave my computer connected to the internet all day and have it's processor tied, but from the research I've done I am under the impression that in order to verify transactions I need to be mining as well.
So I guess my question is, can I verify transactions without trying to mine bitcoin, can I do it here and there when my computer is free and connected to the internet, and is there any resource I should read to help get me started?
Thanks for the help, sorry for the noob question.
Verifying the validity of transactions is not the same as mining. Verifying transactions means that you are just running a full node; mining is taking those transactions and putting them in blocks so they are committed to the blockchain. You can run a full node and verify transactions, but you won't get compensated for it. Only miners can earn money as they are spending the energy and work required to generate blocks.