Ask HN: How do I go about learning machine learning?

I've finally found an interesting field that gets me really excited to program! I learned python a month ago but haven't had any interesting ideas but I just found out about Machine learning, AI, and data science. Really interesting stuff so I'm wondering what HN would suggest as a general learning path! What math should I know to really understand this stuff? What books do I need to read? Some beginner project ideas? Anything at all! I'm a HS Senior and I plan to really focus on machine learning, data science, and AI once I'm in college.

Thank you.