Yes and no.
I agree totally that we are often sold a lie in childhood - for me it was largely academic. "Get your qualifications and the world will be your oyster"; "You'll make masses of lifelong friends at university"; "Once you've got a degree you're guaranteed a good job".
I have found that my life will often "plateau" for a bit; there'll be the highs, like falling in love or finding a new band I really like or reading a new author or trying a new type of chocolate; the lows, like bereavement, illness, or unexpectedly having to change job; but a lot of the time the trick is just to endure. For me personally I found exploring the spiritual side of life, reading, finding new music and films and TV programmes via Youtube, and lately Netflix and Amazon has really helped. The spiritual side has encompassed everything from guided meditation to "bagging" stone circles as if they were Munros. In the last six years or so I've also found photography really helpful and I've pretty much always kept journals.
I'm from a very poor background but I was lucky enough to have my first degree paid for by the grants system (just - they started running it down the year after I graduated). Ironically it was teacher training that left me in debt though, due to the particular year I qualified (they hadn't yet upped the "student loan repayment" threshold to a sensible annual amount). I was very bright at school but found university a massive disappointment; it wasn't actually until I worked overseas and did the spiritual stuff that I found some of my "tribe".
I've worked in public and private sectors, small organisations and large organisations, for good managers and bad; I've worn posh frocks to equally posh "dos" and also had fun doing more down-to-earth things like singing karaoke and dancing at ceilidhs. The nicest wedding I ever went to was a pot luck barbecue.
I've been lucky enough to travel more than I thought I would be able to, although I thought I'd spend more of my working life abroad than I did. I've lived in cities, by the sea and in the countryside. I've eaten all kinds of food and even grown some of my own. I've lost count of the number of different types of chocolate I've tried. I've met and worked and laughed and been friends with all kinds of people from different cultures, countries and backgrounds than my own. I've been reasonably well off and I've been dirt poor. I've been gloriously healthy and not well at all.
I had a decent enough career, in a respectable, neutral profession (librarian) until unexpected ill health cut it short; I now do part-time work from home and am gradually hoping to build it up to a full-time role again. I've seen amazing developments in science and computer/communications technology that seemed, well, like science fiction when I was young.
On the other hand, the man I would have married turned out to be financially, psychologically and emotionally abusive, and some other partners damaged me in other ways including infidelity and lying; I've never known the joy and sorrow of my own children. I've never been able to afford my own home, due to not having been able to save a deposit before the utterly insane housing market took off yet again. It took me a long time to learn to drive, and for health reasons I now don't drive and am unlikely to again. I get panicky on public transport and it takes at least three times as long (a recent hospital appointment, 45 minutes away by car, took 3 hours to reach by public transport).
In the last ten years I've been saddened and disappointed and infuriated by what the country I loved has become, and I've been exasperated by the refusal of most people to face up to what climate change is going to mean for their children and future generations.
I'd love to see a world where the focus is on kindness, fairness, equal distribution of resources and opportunities, and where success is measured in happiness and treasuring the small events that aren't actually small events at all - enjoying the rainbow; feeding the ducks; saying hello to the evening star. (And of course, being British, a good cup of tea or two...)