I assume you are a total beginner, as your question implies.
One tip I could share is to try to overcome your fear and do not panic easily (do not panic at all if possible).
That means you need to have enough exercise before adventuring on the highways or on streets with high traffic.
To overcome your fear you need to practice in empty parking lots, places or streets were the traffic is low to none.
I see you are in US and that means your car will be, mostly, automatic (in US automatic dominates, in Europe is the reverse).
I disagree that you should start driving by driving a manual car (only if manual is the only choice then you probably need to start with that).
Having an automatic car will relieve you from at least one more thing you have to think of: changing the gear.
As a beginner, you need to concentrate your attention to more important things, like starting and braking, signaling, turning, looking around. You already have enough. Adding manual shifting of the gears will only add more to your plate.
Another things against manual shifting of the gears (when you are a total beginner) is that you may not know how and when to properly shift it and your almost full attention will be there instead on to the road. You may get on the streets in the gear 1-2 and, because of the fear and because you may forget,you may over run the engine...then when you hear the engine roar you may panic not knowing what could be the problem...and if you are in the traffic that will add more stress as some drivers may yell or honk at you (Razvan knows how the drivers in his country - which is mine as well - are: so impatient).
And on top of this, you may discover that you have low capability in coordinating you feet with your hands and your attention. You will have three pedals at your feet, and both hands busy. You may get into confusion just by not knowing which one to push, in what order, etc. especially if you have to do it fast.
Why I do no agree with the manual gear for a beginner?
In my native country I tried 6 times to get a driving permit. Most of the failures were at the driving on the streets.
I couldn't coordinate my feet, my hands and pay attention. I just couldn't. Either hands worked well, or the feet. But not all in the same time. I couldn't pass the exam.
In the end I gave up on getting a driving license using a manual gear shifting car.
I have learned driving quite quickly here in US on an automatic one.
I first tried with a friend's car in a large parking lot, then on some empty streets. I got the license using another friend's car. Then I bought mine and drove more on the low traffic streets in the night. Then I jumped on the freeway where I almost had an accident the first time (avoided at the last second).
After that I had 6 months of driving AND trying, experimenting with the car, to better grasp the skill. Yeah, those 6 months got me 6 speeding tickets (damn cameras!) but at least no accidents. I got to know the car, know what it can do, what I can do and I learned to overcome my fear.
From my point of view, this is one big accomplishment for me. I am much better driver now (but don't do like me, better go and experiment with your car in empty spaces not on the busy streets or freeways if you want to learn more about it).
After you are confident with your automatic car, you can learn to drive a manual transmission car if you still want (especially if you plan to go to Europe or other parts of the world).
Aside of this, I don't see any real advantage of having a manual transmission car. In America's traffic that doesn't help much. The fuel economy is not that big at all with new cars (new means several years old). Pleasure of driving, the thrill? I am not driving on Le Mans or Paris-Dakar race and I will probably never will. For me the car should get me from the point A to point B with at least amount of work from my part. I am busy enough already.
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