I was in the same boat you were in about a year ago. I bought a Nexstar, thinking I'd teach myself to fly it. When it finally arrived, and I saw how pretty that bird was, and how fragile it was... It kind of made me think twice about teaching myself to fly. So, I joined a club. I finally worked it into my schedule to meet with an instructor. He maidened it for me on that day, but due to the time, it was the only flight that got put on the plane. Weeks went by and I wasn't able to make time to meet with an instructor again. So, after feeling confident from flying the sim, I decided to take my plane and head up to the local school yard and have a whack at it myself. I got the plane up in the air just fine, even flew around fine. That is, dodging lightposts, trees, buildings. The area looked a lot smaller once I got that plane up in the air!!! Anyways, after about 4 or 5 minutes I decided to try and bring it in and land. Pull it around over the trees, cut the trottle and the engine dies. Ok, no problem, I can do this, right? Wrong! Before I knew it, the plane was still cruising way to fast and I was running out of room. Swing set comes up, I pull back. Tree comes up, I turn left. Chain link fence comes up, I'm out of airspeed to pull up, and WHAM!! My planes engine is turned at a 90 degree angle, and the firewall is cracked. Damn!
Anyways, point being... Take the time and get an instructor. IT IS WELL WORTH IT!!!
After getting an instructor, and having him talk me through the flying, I was landing my plane on the second time on the buddy box. I was solo within no time. The simulator helped me a lot! There is no way I could have even been close to being able to land my plane so soon without it. But the instructor proved to be invaluable. My nexstar is still in flying condition today! Without an instructor, the plane would never have survived! And I"m sure I wouldn't have stuck with the hobby if that would have happened. Now I have 4 planes, all flight worthy!

THANKS TO ALL THE INSTUCTORS OUT THERE!! MUCH APPRECIATED!!!