Unprotected left turns at a light

Hi everyone, I am a new driver and I am very nervous about unprotected left turns. I dealt with my first one today. I was the first person at the light and got so nervous because of oncoming traffic zooming past that I waited a whole extra light cycle until I could turn because traffic wouldn't stop coming and I felt that there were no good gaps for me to make a left without causing a huge crash. Once there were no more cars coming and the light was green again, I went, I feel very silly and I feel bad for holding up traffic behind me. I got honked at and called a name and I feel pretty terrible about it, I've only been driving on my own for a few days and I sincerely just want to become a better driver and seem to be improving in other areas of driving. I even have a new driver sticker on the back in my car just in case. I am located in NY suburbs. Any tips? Thank you so much!