Interesting, I somewhat of an opposite reaction, although I am certainly not a mathematician. Once everything became definitions, my eyes glazed over - in most cases the rationale for the definitions was not clear and the definitions appeared over-complicated.
It took me some time, but now it's a lot better -- like a little game I somewhat know the rules of. I now accept that mathematicians are often worrying about maximal abstraction or addressing odd pathological corner cases. This allows me to wade through the complexity without getting overwhelmed like I used to.
My dad always told me growing up today math was like a game and a puzzle, and I hated that. I also hated math at the time. It felt more like torture than a game.
I didn't fall in love with math until Statistics, Discrete Math, Set Theory and Logic.
It was the realization that math is a language that can be used to describe all the patterns of real world, and help cut through bullshit and reckon real truths about the world.
It took me some time, but now it's a lot better -- like a little game I somewhat know the rules of. I now accept that mathematicians are often worrying about maximal abstraction or addressing odd pathological corner cases. This allows me to wade through the complexity without getting overwhelmed like I used to.