What Happens After MIT?

One degree and just over a full year in my new country of residence later, here's my best stab at answering the question I posed slightly over a year ago on my graduation day: What happens after MIT?
[I've decided to finish asking What Happens After MIT? From now on, you can follow my adventures on my new blog: http://bringlepain.blogspot.com/ ]

I have finished my Master’s and am now officially a PhD student.

I have renewed my permit of stay and am half-way to eligibility for French dual citizenship.

I have finally advanced to the status of sádhaka in yoga, meaning that I’m now doing real yoga rather than the pre-yoga classes I took all last year. (To be honest, I should have advanced ages ago, I just kept on putting off a certain exam.)

I've worked with a fellow MIT undergrad to reassemble the MIT10 young alumni community in Paris.

I’ve started getting back into playing the cello, have discovered that it’s quite expensive to replace strings, and have enthusiastic piano accompaniment whenever I want.

I have started a new gmail folder called Long-term Correspondences. Not too many people’s names sit inside, but I’m pleased by the people who’ve stayed in touch and I’m always happy to discover when another American friend is moving to this side of the pond.

I have begun new relationships on this continent and maintained some of those I started during my semester abroad.

I have toyed around with teaching English as a volunteer on the side.

I have explored the Couchsurfing community both as a host and a surfer.

I’ve moved to several times and am now living in an actual house just outside of Paris with four French housemates in the only French town with a Communist mayor.

I've made friends from five different continents and interacted with many different cultures.

I’ve traveled in 13 countries (Chile/Argentina/Uruguay/USA/France/UK/Spain/Netherlands/Italy/Finland/Norway/Austria/Morocco) across 4 continents and have very nearly filled up my passport.

I have experienced poverty and the odd ways in which Western culture infiltrates on the developing world. (For instance, how is it that people who can’t always afford to put food on the table can have a cell phone?)

I have intimately learned about American history from an alternate perspective that I’d never seen in a classroom textbook by traveling abroad and talking with the locals.

I have finally had a chance to really put to use the languages I learned back in high school.

I have watched a startling number of my friends announce their engagement and even post their wedding albums on Facebook, and I’ve wondered what the hell happened to being a kid. Hell, some of my friends have their own kids now.

I have nearly stopped pulling all-nighters and have finally (mostly) recovered from many years of sleep debt.

I created an entire book, a monster 2 gigabyte file (this blog) filled with photos and stories of this first year post-MIT in search of an answer. And I suppose the best I’ve found is that life goes on, that things become less stressful, and that there’s more time for sleeping and exploring and picking up old hobbies. I've begun putting a lot more thought into the direction in which I’m really headed beyond just my next degree. I don’t think I’ve got my answer to what happens after MIT, but it's been an interesting and satisfyingly unpredictable start.