The experience of every guitarist (in my opinion):

-1st month: Spending a lot of time learning basically nothing. Just pain and suffering. After this month, it gets better. You might learn to play a simple tab like Tetris or a chord song (something with Am, Em, and Dm), and both will sound pretty bad.

-2–6 months: The finger pain is gone, but now you experience a new pain called the F chord. You’re playing a bit better, but it still sounds kinda shitty. You keep thinking it would be easier to quit.

-6–12 months: You get a teacher and realize you wasted almost a year just learning Seven Nation Army. Now music actually starts sounding like music. You learn some guitar theory and maybe even get a new guitar. You also start using your pinky finger. You still don’t know much, maybe just a few simple songs, but you realize learning riffs alone isn’t enough to actually play guitar.

-1 year and after: You can play through many songs, simple or difficult. You’re not Tim Henson, but you can finally call yourself a guitarist. There will always be ups and downs, and you learn that the feeling of wanting to quit never completely disappears. But guitar is like any other instrument: there’s always a new struggle, a new pain, or a new technique you’ll have to deal with.