Shifting on 2014 Mini Cooper S

[fernandezer]

Hi everyone. This is my first post ever. I wanted to ask a question regarding shifting.

I live in Miami, where most of the people drive automatic cars. My Cooper S, however, is stick-shift. It usually happens to me at stop lights that whenever the light turns green, the cars in front of me accelerate quickly, but I get sort of distanced/left behind because it is really hard for me to accelerate like the others while maintaining passenger comfort (smooth shifting). Is this a normal thing? How can I improve?