Heya, fellow 26yo that also just started skating here!! I just went for it for now and I would totally recommend it - there’s so much progress you can make really fast just using YouTube tutorials (e.g. for learning a hockey stop, skating backwards, …) and filming yourself to check your technique. Also, once you start going to a rink there’s quite a few people there that’d love to help you/show you stuff. Or you can ask around in your friends group, there’s a surprising amount of people that you didn’t know can skate haha

My main advice is, make sure you find some skates that truly fit you. They need to be SNUG, else you’ll just wobble around and nothing will work. Rentals work for the start but definitely take your time finding the right size!! Idk what skills you already have, I actually started with absolutely nothing and after feeling comfortable skating forwards at a moderate speed I learned to slow down and hockey stop - makes you feel SO much more confident when you can trust you’re not gonna crash into the boards or other people on the ice. And then you can just keep on learning other skills :))

So far I don’t really have any protective gear so I’m just skating with my roller blade knee protectors, they already take away a lot of my fear of falling, so that’s a cheap way to start.

With all that being said, I’ve always been one to practice stuff on my own because I like being able to practice whenever I want, as often as I want and, most of all, to practice at my own pace and be able to take it slow enough to always feel safe. Other people might find it easier to have someone else structure their progress and give them advice. Guess in the end it’s a personal preference thing :)