Well no one would have guessed - including me. I removed the clutch to find that one side of the clutch completely ripped off the plate. So I drove about 1500 miles with one side of a clutch lol. I guess the ripped off clutch material was still kind of connected causing the transmission to not stop completely thus making first gear hard to get in.
p.s. don't replace your clutch on the floor of your garage unless you have a great therapist