Welcome to the boards and welcome to the hobby. The soarness is definitely caused by what you're smoking. There are lots of chemicals and unnatural additives to "gas station" smokes such as white owls. What you need to do is go buy "premium" cigars and make sure you don't inhale them. With premium cigars, they do not come with plastic tips and will typically run you from 2 dollars upward per cigar. When you start smoking these, you will have to cut or punch the "capped" or closed off end. Some brands you might want to start with:

Gran Habano
Punch "Champion"
Montecristo Platinum
Carlos Torano Exodus 1956
Ashton


Again, welcome to the boards.