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Life will continue to be popularity contest, you'll just no longer be forced by state mandated education to remain in close physical proximity to those people with whom you are not popular. There are many spheres of popularity and they will no longer be compared to each other so directly
After high school, regardless of the group they were in some will be successful and popular (with some group of people) and have great lives and some will be unsuccessful losers with lives of drudgery. There is no cosmic knife twist that the popular kids in high school stall once high school is over. That is a myth the unpopular kids tell themselves to make themselves feel better. Hell, there isn't even a single definition of what would constitute "popularity."
What you're feeling DisneyFan is being a teenager. All teenagers, regardless of situation go through periods of feeling out of place, wondering what it all means and what it is all worth and dissatisfaction with the status quo. They may not seem interested in getting into college and yet most of them will and they'll do well there and go on to have decent careers and happy lives. They're just not as focused on it as you (or, they don't care to talk about their focus on it with you).
It is important to learn how to be comfortable with yourself and figure out who you want that to be. And that is something all of your fellow students are figuring out for themselves as well.
And while you don't want to pretend to be stupid, talking like the people around you is not necessarily "dumbing down." If you create separations between you and the people around you then you can't be all that surprised if the respect those separations.
One of the hardest lessons I learned growing up and growing into a social person was that everybody is not just waiting to be awed by my intellect and erudition at every opportunity. People will respect you for your intelligence if you aren't ashamed of it, but they also aren't looking to be beat about the shoulders with it.
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