SECOND UPDATE:
I GOT IT TO WORK!!!
For anyone else who runs into the same problem I did, here is what you need to do:
I went into my motherboard BIOS under “boot options”. Under boot options, there was a dropdown menu where I could select “Option ROM boot”. I had the option of choosing “Legacy only” “UEFI only” or “Disabled”. After I chose “UEFI Only” and saved, my PC booted up just fine.
And wow is this SSD ever fast. Even on PCIe Gen 3.0 you notice if you have an OS installed.