Developing a wine palate?

Hey everyone. First of all, I'm a wine noob. My parents don't drink whatsoever, and so until college I was never able to partake. I am currently taking a Food and Beverage class and two weeks ago we had a Sommelier come in and he introduced me to my first glass (glasses, really, 9 in total) of wine. Long story short, I've been hooked since. I've read a couple of books, I currently have Kevin Zraly's Complete Wine Course on order and with my next paycheck I'll be ordering the World Atlas of Wine and Sotherby's Wine Encylepedia. To be entirely honest, I want to go for my Level I certification with the Court of Master Sommeliers in the future.

To that end, I was wanting to know how you developed your palate. Is it simply drinking a lot of wine? Is there a specific way that you have to go about it? How did you get your start?