Agree with advice about lowering expectations, not standards. Your experiences are very similar to my own.
It's too easy to get irritated/annoyed with people who don't understand you or worse still, try to change you by their demeaning attitude. Totally agree that you're disappointed with how people behave today. What annoys me is the constant "dumbing down", instead of encouraging people to "raise their game".
Of course, this would take into account natural abilities.
There's a simple expression to remember "be yourself, everyone else is taken". This applies to so many aspects of your character. Academic ability, personality traits, hobbies/interests. For me the biggest problem is not feeling isolated because I'm different from close family and friends. Never, ever lower your standards.
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