I actually think it's somewhat the opposite. When I was in school I was broke and had to work my ass off, yet I have never been happier because I was surrounded by people close to my age who were open to making friends, in a similar life situation, and had a considerable amount of freedom. I was learning interesting new things every day, saw my close friends every day, and dating was a blast. There was lots of boredom and hard work too, of course.

Now I'm an adult with a typical adult life. It's lonelier and less free. I have a pretty cool job which I enjoy way more than I ever did my studies, so there's less boredom. And I have money now too. But career just requires so many sacrifices. I have to exercise and do errands, and I can't function right on less than 7-8 hours of sleep, so I really just have 2-3 hours per day to myself.

But you know, all of that would be perfectly fine if adult life wasn't so goddamn lonely compared to school. Everyone I work with is at least 10 years older than me. All my friends live 30+ minutes away and are similarly busy. Most of them are in serious relationships now, or are engaged, or married. Their priorities have changed. And we're all just so tired these days.

The problem is that everything in America is structured around money first, living second. It's a rat race culture and we've all bought into it. You can't live outside the rat race without suffering severe consequences. And even if you did, what's the point if nobody else is going to join you? Sure I could quit my job tomorrow and try to make my own way, but it's pointless because nobody else is willing to make the sacrifices.

It's really the sense of community I miss more than anything. I just don't feel like I really have that anymore, despite having plenty of friends and a reasonably active social life. At most, my social life is 1.5 days per week (friday night and saturday).