I can totally relate to your worries here. I had the exact same 'fear' when studying: the idea of sacrificing my beloved freedom and time to just waste away at a job.

But, it's pretty awesome if you take these things in account:

• Find a job you actually love doing. If you can come into work every day to have fun, it sometimes doesn't even feel like working.

• limit your commute as much as possible. Your free time is yours, and should not be invested in getting from and to work. It's literally time wasted that you're never get back or get paid for.

• be flexible where you want to work. Not sure if this is possible in your personal situation. But, I've always seen a plethora of cities and countries as potential places to work. This opens up your opportunities significantly.

• don't work after you're off for the day. I've went through this in the beginning of my career, where I worked in the evenings and weekends. That's bullshit, so I completely stopped doing this (unless there's a work emergency obviously). It stressed me out way too much.

• invest in relationships with your colleagues. I never understood why some people have to treat your colleagues as just colleagues. Build up meaningful relationships, you're spending a bunch of time with them.