Welcome!!! Great advice from the guys above.
I'm European so the idea of buying a bike without proper licensing is a completely odd idea to me. However, I bet I wouldn't be the only one to strongly suggest taking a MSF course to learn the basics of riding a motorcycle.
Also, get proper gear. Don't cheap out on a helmet, gloves, boots and a suit. The latter doesn't need to be a full on leather race suit (expensive!) but textile riding pants and jacket with armored knees, back and elbows on is a minimal must IMO.
Find an empty parking lot and get used to the weight of the bike, how it reacts to various inputs and do some slow speed maneuvers. Once you feel comfortable, do some emergency brakes at 30mph.
When in traffic, anticipate things ahead at least twice as far ahead as you would with a car. Move yourself out of icky situations. Not just the ones that are immediately dangerous, but also the ones that can potentially turn into a dangerous situation. I view things a bit like chess sometimes. "While riding at a certain spot things might be fine, but if that one car moves to the right, there's no way for me to make room for that merging truck, so I better speed up or slow down to make room for both first".
As in lifestyle changes... Well, stay healthy and remember, from now on forward, you'll be continually looking for excuses to ride. Your commute to work will probably take twice as long as well
Start off with getting some simple sillicone ear plugs with noise filter. You'll have a good set for $30 or so.
@Jerry and
@Devilsfan both give good earplug advice. It doesn’t have to be fancy, expensive or specialty pieces to work under a helmet so a big box of cheapie yellow plugs from a supply store work great as well, I have one in my garage and have 3-4 pairs in each bike’s tank bag as spares. 
I'd like to get one of those custom pairs. Will let you know if I find one that's worth the $.
I just bought a pair of generic ear plugs like this... I think there's something wrong with my ear canal. They don't fit well on me. Looking forward to buy a custom one.+ 1 on what Jerry says...get ear plugs!
I have a set of Sure Fire's which are pretty cool. Google "SureFire Ear Protection" and check them out. But I currently use Howard Leight Smartfit Shooter's Earplugs. https://www.howardleight.com/earplugs/smartfit
I got them at Walmart or one of those tractor supply stores. (They come with a BLUE string). Out of all the ear plugs I've tried I like these the best. But everyone has different ear sizes so try a few of them out. Most of them are cheap.
Will keep Vibes in mind. I'm currently doing my research. I'll also check the thread about earplugs to make sure. Thanks!
Search the forum for an ear plug thread as well, I think someone asked about them a week or so ago and we all gave some extensive answers. Might have been another forum, though.
I personally use Vibes ear plugs available from their website or Amazon and at under $25 a set I have one in each bike. They are small, comfortable and work great whenever sound restricting is needed (I work as a radio and sound engineer so cutting down loud noises is key for me) while still keeping a full fidelity. There are others, so look around and find some that are low profile to fit under a helmet. I also got a custom set made this winter and while they fit great, on the bike it’s too much in my ear and I prefer the Vibes units still. I may give the customs another shot at some point but for now they sit on a shelf. My dad loves his, however so to each their own.
Hope this helps!!!
W
I'll check this brand out to. It sounds like it's of good quality. But I'm leaning towards buying a custom one since my ears still hurt from wearing a generic ear plugs last night.
Hey,MacKenzie - I also bought two pairs of the SureFire's.
The first set, if you look at the picture, the black part that goes inside the ear fit (Med) but the medium silicone tips they made were too small for my ear canal. So I decided to get a size LARGE with the FOAM tips...well, the foam tips work 100% better, but the (Large) black part that goes around the inside of the ear was too big.
What I wound up doing was pull the foam part off and put them on the (Med) black part. These are really nice but, IMO, don't muffle the sound as much as those orange plugs I wear do.
With the Surefire's you have the option to push in the little noise-cancelling tips. This will muffle ALL sounds, whereas having those tips out will muffle outside sounds but will allow you to hear voices much better.
https://www.surefire.com/tactical-equipment/earpro-products.html
