All animals have their own personalities. I jumped right from corns to my SD. Retics are smart and will easily pick up on your habits (good and bad) and are very food motivated. A full size one might be cheaper to start out with but in the long run will be more a more expensive commitment to house and feed.

On top of my SD I also help someone once a week with their snakes. One of the snakes is a super tiger probably in the 8' range right now and about a year old. This past week I had to deal with a stuck eye cap. I had no problem handling the snake alone. As gio said a lean snake under 10' isn't really all that big.