How to start a PhD
It made me 
"The fulfilment of a long held dream, and 100% worth it so far."
How I did it: I looked up universities (in the UK) that had relevant graduate programmes, contacted potential supervisors, put together draft proposals for their review and comments, revised the proposals and then applied formally. The hardest thing was getting/putting together the funding -- that's what made it take such a long time.
