Awww, that's NO excuse man
It being awkward and painful DOES go away over time, man. You just didn't give it time enough.
When you first start, your fingers are going to get absolutely shredded, but after a few weeks you build up calluses, and they just get harder and harder as you play. Also, your hand gets stronger over time, and more used to playing, so it won't cramp up as soon or as much. Alot of people have that problem, and they make the mistake of stopping as soon as it starts to hurt. That's the
opposite of what you're supposed to do. When your hand starts to hurt, you keep playing... keep playing... keep playing... and eventually, the pain goes away. That's how you build up the muscles in your wrist, which is how you get faster, and your fingers get more... graceful? Accurate, is probably a better word for it though.
The awkwardness goes away with pure practice. True practice. Like, really putting time and effort into getting better. You have to train your fingers to jump through the hoops, and make the chord shapes better faster stronger. After a while, you can do it in a snap. A little longer, you can shape the chords without even thinking about your fingers.
You can't just sit down with a guitar, try for ten or twenty minutes at a time and call it practice. You gotta earn it. Everyone who ever played the guitar had to earn it, unless they were some crazy japanese child prodigy, or maybe some pretentious dousch like Malmstien. lol.