When unrealistic dreams come true

When we were asked in elementary school what sort of job we wanted I always thought that being paid to sleep would be the best job.  I think I feared that my answer would be seen as a joke or unrealistic.  As I like animals I would instead say the generic kid answer of veterinarian (I knew even as a child that surgery and blood was not for me, but they wanted an answer).  As far as career development went, I could never really get past the back of my mind where the truth would be and the little voice of doubt that such a job could even exist.

Jump forward +20 years later, I have a BA in psychology, and I have my dream job.  I now work for an organization that transitions individuals who have been institutionalized for a variety of mental illnesses into group homes and independent living.  I love my job.  I work mainly alone but occasionally with great coworkers who care about and for the well-being of our clients on numerous levels.  I get to see my clients develop new skills and confidence, at the end of my shift I get up in the morning, go on random adventures for the day, and go back to work at night.

I have always seen that life becomes a question of money vs time.  The rich (like doctors and lawyers) who have no time to enjoy the money they have, or the jobless who have ample time but no money to do things... and then the millions who are working 3 jobs to make ends meet so have no time and have no money.  This seems wrong to me.

I have seen some depressing/unsettling graphs that show our lives broken down into dots, either day to day or month to month.  It really showed me what was lost when we dedicated our daily lives to work.  While it might not be the most lucrative job I gain 8-9 hours in my daytime life that would normally be devoted to work.  1/3 of my life has been given back to me.  I'm aware that my job is not for everyone, and frankly I'm glad or I might have missed out.  I have the luxury of not having kids at home to tuck in (so there isn't any guilt on that side of things) and I still have a body that doesn't care about sleeping on a cot.

Now it is just a matter of how to make the most of each day to the best of my ability.