Congratulations on taking the first step! You'll quickly find it fun, enjoyable and quite addictive. It's a great low-impact way to get fit.
For starting out you're wise to ride off road until you get used to gear selection, braking and turning, and judging braking and closing distances.
Once you've got these basic skills automated after a month or two and you're riding a bit faster, you'll probably find like I did that it's actually a lot less nerve-wracking riding on the road, even when there
is traffic.
The trick is reasonably simple. If you're licenced and used to driving in traffic, just ride your bike the same way: occupy the lane, ride defensively of course, but be assertive and above all predictable.
The little issue I have with bike paths is the pedestrians who co-use them seem to have bovine spongiform encephalitis. They wander unpredictably like Brown's Cows and your arrival is uniformly greeted with surprise.
You'll be perfectly fine using these paths to ride on while you establish your skills, so long as you use your judgement around other users and assume that they're likely to do the thing you least expect.
Oh, one last thing: enjoy yourself.
That's an order!