Hi Tony:
My name is Tom, and I'm an old, grey-haired fossil who fortunately remembers very clearly what it's like to be 16---believe it or not.
I took photography in high school roughly 45 years ago. We didn't have very elegant equipment then, even by the standards of the day, but I did learn some valuable fundamentals that have served me over the years.
The school had a couple so-so cameras that we were allowed to use including an old Speed Graphic that used 4" X 5" sheet film that we had to load into film holders. The process was slow, complicated, and generally a pain in the neck. It did teach us to be very careful and thorough about setting up our shots, however. We generally went out on a shoot with only enough film to take 8 to 10 pictures before we'd have to go back to the darkroom and load more film. Surprisingly, though, the quality of those black and white pictures was quite good.
Sometime, just for fun, you might get a good older manual 35mm camera and a light meter---go outdoors and take some pictures. You'll learn a lot more about composition, lighting, and image aesthetics when you have a finite number of exposures to accomplish your task.
Photography is a wonderful hobby. Work kept me away from it for too many years, and I regret the time I lost. Now, I look back and ask myself, what would it really have cost in time and trouble to have a camera at my side during the most important episodes of my life? If I had, I could have captured so many images that are now only dusty memories.
Enjoy yourself and learn. Unlike me, your past is still largely ahead of you.
Tom