step #8

Play the game.
The process of getting into academia is rife with hoops for the jumping. Jump through them.

With regard to hoop-jumping, there are a few minimal rules by which one should abide:

1) Pretend you are enjoying jumping through the hoops, but not to the extent that, to some, it appears you are making fun of the hoop/the hoop holder.
Yes: "What an interesting class."
No: "Great class, Dr.____. I think the only way it could have possibly been more interesting is if I were able to stop wishing I had never been born."
2) Pretend you don't realize that the hoops in question are hoops at all, rather, an integral part the coming-of-academic-age process.
Yes: "The other day my classmate suggested that our Seminar class might be without direction or purpose. After I finished beating them into the ground, I couldn't help but shed a tear for how ungrateful some people really are."
No: "The other day my classmate suggested that our Seminar class actually has a purpose. I just stared blankly at them for what seemed like five minutes, but was probably only a few seconds or so, then we both laughed. So hard and so pure was out laughter, Jones, a parapalegic, was instantly healed. A Mariachi band fronted by--get this--Morrisey appeared as if out of nowhere, and led us all in a celebration gala.
3) Keep it real. Meaning, hoop-jumping, for a time, is only your day job: don't let the mentality required for the process penetrate your already thinning shell of idealism.
Yes: 9:00AM, Monday: "I just love this class."
No: 9:00PM, Friday: "I just loved that class."