photons are generated at the core from matter by hydrogen fusion (bigger elements later in the star life), the photons travel to the surface by absorption and re-emission taking about 100,000 years in average to escape, despite traveling at the speed of light. so the slow part depends on perspective
Thinking about a photon's perspective is nonsensical. You are asking for a frame of reference where the photon is at rest but the very definition of a frame of reference in relativity is one where photon's are travelling at the speed of light. Therefore there cannot be a frame of refernece where a photon is at rest and so a photon can never have a perspective, and neither can anything travelling at the speed of light.