I got to be around airplanes every day, but still didn't have enough to fly a lot, but at least I was in hog heaven being around them. After a couple of years, I had gotten enough hours to take my check ride, but I had another hurdle. It would take several hours of flying at one time to get all the kinks worked out and get recommended for the check ride. Once we got married, we survived because chickens were 29 cents each and we could get two meals out of one chicken. Flying was out of the question, but not out of mind.
Dreams are always there.
Finally, after several years in the insurance business, I got serious about setting goals. I wrote down my goals. Several of them were ridiculous, not the least of which was to own an airplane. Funny thing about goals though. When you write them down and get serious about them, even if you don't necessarily see how it might happen, things have a strange way of coming into your life to fulfill those goals.