With heavy mathematical topics (ML, category theory, quadratic programming, graph grammars), I find that it takes me multiple attempts spaced over months before I can say that I understand the basic math. Math is a really broad, really deep, and really challenging subject, but extremely rewarding to pursue.

Echoing the commenter who suggested you learn C++, look at Haskell too. Of all the languages that I've worked in so far, Haskell is my absolute favourite. This free course got me over the initial hump in the learning curve: <http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~cis194/fall16/>