The first one is always the hardest. Glad you finished it and overall it was a good experience. The swim will get better with practice/experience. Most of it is psychological. You have to just know and accept you're going to get kicked and you're going to run into people. And thank you for the kind words.
I had a similar instance in a local club tri event last weekend where I lost my timing chip in my wetsuit. I did know it was off so I never made it out of T1 without it, but I had to turn my wetsuit inside out before I finally found it. That and it was a new-to-me wetsuit, I was in T1 for over 10 minutes! I was quite literally the last person out of T1. This particular event, the lake was really freaking cold so I wore my suit that has full legs. Normally I wear a "shortie" suit which is far easier to get out of, this one I really struggled to get off wet. I still managed to overtake 8 or 9 other participants on the bike, and even one on the run. But I really need to get better in transition, both T1 and T2.