Overwhelmed-but having a blast.

[Briaireous]

I'm a long time player, I wouldn't call myself a veteran by any stretch though, as I've just returned from a 2 year break. It took me a few days just to remember how to move around and relearn the basic systems

My advice would be to get your traveling down first, get familiar with the nations. So focus on unlocking as many of the Aetherytes as you can.

If you haven't started the quest "My Little Chocobo" maybe get that down as well as it will give you access to your chocobo mount! Which you can use later as a companion or to race and breed with

Something else you could do to learn more about what the game has to offer is to use the wikis and other websites available. You might find something you would like to obtain or achieve. Be it a piece of gear, mount, minion etc. These are my 2 go to websites (there are others of course)

xivdb.com
ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/FF14_Wiki
Most of all have fun and do what you think will be enjoyable