Glad to hear you will take it slowly and seek the advice of others. You will enjoy the hobby more, in my opinion.

Setting the controller like you have I believe is called Mode 1, whereas the other way is Mode 2 (if I am wrong someone will correct me). There are several pilots at the field I used to fly at that fly in Mode 1. They say they like it more. I'm a Mode 2 guy because when I flew full scale the throttle was on the left and the stick (ailerons and elevator) on the right.

Good luck and let us all know how you do!