The good news is, you have a year to prepare. Usually people start to do things a few weeks before the planned trip - it's sort of beyond anyone's help by then.

I'd find a buddy and plan a single night trip somewhere, at mid-elevation - somewhere between 6,000 - 8,000 feet. Rent some backpacking gear (you can do that, get a sleeping bag and pad, tent, backpack and stove) and take some simple food - doesn't even have to be freeze dried special meals, don't bother with worrying about that yet. Sandwiches and snacks will get you through two days of hiking fine. See how you do with something 5-7 miles out and back to the car.

My concerns with someone like you would be 1) are you really going to like backpacking? and 2) how are you going to do with elevation? Because if you haven't hiked up to 9-10k before, that could be really hard, and potentially dangerous (there is a thing called altitude sickness, and sometimes people have symptoms as low as 5,000 feet). Especially if you haven't built up some endurance for the trail.

Keep dayhiking as much as you can, look at the gear lists and articles in the left column here at backpacking.net (did you see those already?) and read up on the threads here in the Beginners subforum. There's a lot of info here already.