Thanks, i appreciate your honesty
I hope I can help
I spent my first 10 years of bonsai filling my back yard with random plants and trees that I thought would make great bonsai, only to find out later that I wasted a lot of time
My recommendation is to start with something fast and easy - and I immediately think of junipers and chinese elms. Junipers are great because they are often obtainable from someone's yard, and chinese elms are cheap, fast-growing, and super hardy. Then I would move to maples, and eventually to pines. Though you can always find "other" trees/plants to work on, you will find the greatest amount of examples, reference materials, and workshops focusing on the above trees.
For example, there will be almost no one that will be able to provide real world experience to you for working with escallonia, nor will you be able to find pictures on the Internet or in books. I can honestly say that I have never seen an escallonia bonsai. All of these things I was taking into consideration when I wrote my recommendation about "getting better results sooner" with other material. I would recommend finding cool examples of bonsai that inspire you (in books or whatever) and then purchase the same plant material and try to repeat the example. This can sometimes generate some surprising results in a short time - and is a quick way to develop certain skills.
EDIT Living in Tampa you have access to a lot of great tropical material. Get yourself some ficus! They meet the criteria I mention above about being fast-growing, hardy, and having lots of examples to work from. Best way to start a ficus bonsai on the cheap is to find a big one growing in someone's yard and airlayer off a nice sized branch.