How should I go from arithmetic to.....

being able to wax poetics in category theory with you guys in one month? I don't even really understand subtraction let alone multiplication and division.

Actually that should be “know” and not “understand” as I am sure I'll understand when I try to learn it and I'm gonna have to if I want to learn category theory.

dont worry you dont have to understand subtraction.

This is normal math 1 + 1 = 2

This is category theory: f(x + y) = f(x) + f(y)

Take undergraduate level math courses like calculus, physics, linear algebra and other easy stuff for dumb engineers.

Grab a book on abstract algebra. Try to understand some basic mathematical objects like groups, fields and rings.

Grab a book on category theory.

Easy as that.