Ten necessary steps to becoming an astronaut

It's a long hard voyage to become an astronaut, but today in the US over 200 men and women are training and traveling into space. Here are the necessary steps:

1. Work hard in school and get good grades.
   
2. Study as much math and science as you can.
   
3. Do well on your SATs and go to a good college.
   
4. Study languages other than English - Russian, Japanese, Chinese, and French would all be useful.
   
5. Get yourself into good physical shape - you need to have good blood pressure and good eyesight to be an astronaut.
   
6. Be a good team player, and make sure that you can work well with others.
   
7. Learn to fly, and get a citizen's pilot license.
   
8. Attend a good graduate school, studying science or engineering.
   
9. When you're out of graduate school, apply to NASA. Another good tip that would help you out is to get involved in Space camps. They will teach you many different things, and you will know for sure if being an Astronaut is something that you would like to do.
   
10. NASA chooses its astronauts from an increasingly diverse pool of applicants that, "looks like America". From thousands of applications from all over the world, approximately 100 men and women are chosen for an intensive astronaut candidate training program every two years.

The study time involved is no more lengthy than that of any other professional career requiring graduate/post-graduate study. If becoming an astronaut is a dream, held long and steadfast, than this labor will be one of love.