Dude,
I did mine 2yrs ago after putting it off for years. I did an intensive course, I had only ever ridden a 125 once about 15 yrs ago whilst on holiday. So the course took me through CBT to full license over about 2 weeks. I was nervous but I had a great instructor (a bit of a ball ache at times but really made me aware of all the dangers out there and what to look for).
So I was worried about my first bike but my mate wanted to sell me his Bandit 1200 and I was like 'but it's a bit big for my first bike' and he convinced me to buy it by saying that I would only want a bigger bike within a few months. I think he was right at the end of the day the bike only goes as fast as you twist that throttle. I took my time and got used to the bike. I love it, it's awesome. Set me back £1200 T Reg with 13k miles on the clock.
I'm going to be using it a lot more this year to save the miles on my other baby.
So there's my story.