As someone who has lived in metro Atlanta for decades, and driven a Fox Mustang T-5 stick to 331,000 miles in that HELL we call traffic I would agree with 1 person above.... buy or borrow a crappy stick car, learn a clutch on it, and drive it for a few weeks on that commute, then sell it.
For some of us there is NOTHING like a stick, the connection to the car is well beyond anything an auto is capable of, however flat out.. the drive can be enough of a royal pain you no longer enjoy the car. But, to me, if you have saved for this car, and never experienced (what can be) the sheer joy of a manual you (to me) are shorting yourself from a very big part of the experience.
I had considered an automatic, and yes to me the in car vids they shifted WAY too soon WOT, and seemed sluggish. Watching a tuned auto reminded me of the old days... nearly barking 2nd & 3rd, holding to 7k, wonderful... but I could not have this car in anything but the connection a stick would give me. Had I gotten an auto every single time I got in the car I would be wondering how much I was missing on that drive. I will take that over the occasional tired clutch leg, or irritation over traffic. The cool afternoon fall day wide open road, windows down, complete connection of rowing gears and being in my GT... all that other BS melts away.
As posted above you get completely natural, fluid, and without thought in your shifting... in traffic too, it is natural, becomes second nature.. that connection.
I can count a handful of times I REALLY regretted a stick... each was either a 6 lane highway shutdown with 30 miles of crawling 1 ft at a time, a 18 hours run from GA to MD in the snow with highway shutdowns, the above mentioned 495/Wash/VA run, or down through Quantico VA on a Friday rush hour. That area... I'd move, but I would not buy an auto for it. For me it is about that connection, and that connection in THIS car... sheer joy.