Hey unadulterated_devin,

Please take your guitar to a store and have them check the action on it. You want to rule out the possibility that the guitar is not set up right. If the strings are too high / too much tension it will be very hard to learn to play, and you might get discouraged and blame yourself for something mechanical.

At the store, they could lower the height of the strings to the neck, make sure the guitar is tuned to the right pitch, and maybe even give you lighter strings. It's naturally harder to push the strings down on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd fret because the tension of the string is higher there. As a beginner you want it to be as easy as possible, but later on you can adjust these things to your taste.

-Carl.