In my early twenties I moved to the East Coast with a bunch of my best friends. We lived, worked, and played together and it was fun. I didn't own much of anything which meant that I didn't feel any external pressures. I never had to tell myself "No." That isn't to say I was happier, because I'm very happy now (it was a blast though). But now I have a wife, a mortgage, a car, and am aware of things like retirement savings, where I was not before. Basically, I'm on the hamster wheel (and digging it by the way) and I have to maintain a state of forward momentum to meet my current obligations to both my future self's security and happiness, as well as my current self's lifestyle. And again, -the wife. So yea. I don't feel free like I used to during that period of my life. That is, in part, a very good and positive thing, believe me. That past, heightened, degree of mobility though is attractive. I've got a lot to do in my time before I see that again, but next time it will be earned.
"Free" feels different at different times in our lives.
Earlier in life it's "free from" parents, school, rules, pressure, various kinds of self-restraint. Later in life it's "free to" do more things [wife, mortgage, car]. There seems to be an ongoing movement between adventure and security. Each provides its own kind of freedom and its own kind of slavery.