I have both corns and bp. Bp was my first snake. I also keep kingsnakes. The previous posts provided good advice. This is what I notice between the two, based on my experience. Please note that snakes are individuals and will have their own personality.
Corn and king snakes are cute, curious and would observe their surrounding as well as explore anything new you put in there. Example, I started experimenting using coco husk substrate over aspen for my 2 kingsnakes. Nibbler immediately started sleeping and move around on it. Soba started burrowing, something I had never see him do with aspen. The corns will be using coco husk too, so I'm excited to see their reactions. On the contrary, my woma python and Children did not care for the new change. They are active during the day and fun to watch and feed. And while they move faster than a bp, it is not so fast compared to a racer. You can manage it and some corns are very laidback. Babies are squirmy but that goes away in a few weeks of growing and settling down.
What the others say about ball pythons is true. If you have anxiety, I don't recommend this as your first snake. If you cannot feed live rats or mice, don't get a bp. You have to be open minded about that. Some corns may need to eat live to get started, but that is rare.
There are other great first pet snakes besides corns and ball pythons. Kings are great, as previously mentioned, babies may be sassy at first. Woma pythons are awesome: hardy, easy to keep and great eaters.
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