My parents wouldn't let me drive until I could drive a manual, so I learned very quickly. I still LOVE driving stick, hubby's Jeep is a manual and I drive it whenever I can because my car is an automatic, but my first 3 cars were manual.

When I was learning it seemed like it took forever to learn, but at that point I didn't have a permit or license, so I couldn't drive all the time, but once I was able to drive more, I got comfortable a lot quicker.