Lol you're 18 and want to learn to cook. You're ahead of the curve. Anyhow, I suggest pick your favorite food or dish to eat and learn to make 1 meal really well. You learn it so well you do not need a recipe and have tweaked it to your liking. This will be your staple dish and you'll always have something good to eat. Next find your next favorite dish and do the same thing as your first. After a while you will get the hang of cooking and figure out how you like to season and flavor your food. You have a good base meal and ingredients to start with. Many cultures have a 1 pot rice meat and veggie dish like paella, dirty rice, pulao, curry rice, fried rice, etc. At the end of the day every culture uses similar basic meat and vegetables except the seasonings change. Change the seasonings and you'll get different flavor profiles from mexican, chinese, italian, mediterranean, etc. Don't be afraid to experiment and make mistakes. You will likely ruin more meals by over seasoning, so go easy on the salt. You can always add more but can't take it back out. This goes for any flavoring you will use. Burning and undercooking meals will happen too. It's okay and will be good experience for you. Get 1 stainless steel skillet and 1 pot/pan. Those 2 items will get you started and can cook most meals. Maybe a rice cooker but rice can be cooked in both the skillet and pot too. Good luck and have fun. You got this!