I agree with BigEd. Sticking with a simple beer will make it very easy to tell how good or bad your beer is and where it can be improved. If you do a beer with higher alcohol content, one that requires additives or flavors to be added, there is more room for error. The experimental beers are best to do when you already have a supply of good beer on hand to drink, so if you mess up the beer it doesn't mean you're running on empty. It also means that you can drink it sooner, because you don't have to wait for the longer fermentation periods of high alcohol beer, or an aging period.
I started on Hefeweizen and it's an easy beer to start with. Some people don't like the taste, so you should really brew a beer that you like. Pale ale is another good beer to start with because you can drink it early on and it'll taste good without needing aging. When I make porters/stouts I prefer to age them because they build up a lot of character and the flavors balance out more. You don't have to age them though.
If you brew the beer at the end of January, you're looking at it being done fermenting about mid to late February, then a couple of weeks to a month to bottle carb depending...so you're probably looking at something for March. For the early spring, I like having both Hefeweizen and Pale Ale/IPAs on hand.
Another thing you might consider, is that St. Patrick's Day is March 17th and you might want to do an Irish Stout.