Although your unique story would have been more interesting, I definitely agree with a lot of what you said.
I graduated college June 4 of last year, and have gone through a couple ideas already. I put serious effort into 2, one being an e-commerce startup I hope to launch this summer. I've definitely had to re-evaluate how much my time is worth over the past year, and that is one of the most important pieces of advice I give to my friends just graduating now.
I planned on working for ~6 months to pay down some debt (credit cards and student loans) and save some money to move to the city (NYC or SF). Ended up getting a great job teaching the computer class at an elementary school and running a staff development program for about 30 elementary school teachers. Its an hourly job, no salary, but I definitely end up working more than 40 hours each week. I'm so drained after dealing with young kids all day that it's incredibly hard to put in more work on a startup.
I really am only able to do it due to two things: first, thank god for breaks, vacation time my first year, and being a school days only employee. Second, finding a great co-founder that keeps me motivated and focused (and also happens to be my significant other - not always a great choice, but for us it's amazing... our third date turned into a three hour long brainstorming session for the e-commerce project I mentioned above).
While I see things working out great in the future, and I'm definitely getting a lot out of my current job (I definitely want to do an education focused startup, and I feel like this age group is impossible to learn about without working with them directly), it is very hard to manage work / life balance when it's really work (day job) / work (startup) / life balance. Getting into a routine, finding sufficient motivation and willpower, and realizing how valuable time is at this point in life is important before even thinking about being able to reasonably work on your own projects or startup.