I became a full-fledged astronomer when I got my first professional job 'doing' astronomy at the Naval Research Laboratory Space Science Division in Washington, D.C. back in 1982.
Getting my PhD was a long and tedious process filled with lots of frustration and occasional episodes of joy while in graduate school at Harvard University. If anyone ever tells you graduate school is easy, they are out of their minds! Between the ages of 23 and 29, I lived on $5000.00 a year and paid $2000.00 in tuition out of this plus room and board. The work was difficult, and there were always many distractions that competed for my time. I am glad I stuck with it, however, because I have had many very exciting and happy times since then, and of course I now look back at my graduate school years with lots of nostalgia about how wonderful it all was!
Go Figure!!!