Oh, Dottie, I just pulled Austin's name out of my OP because I realized I did know him well enough to "categorize" him. Now here he is in your quote. LOL!!
Austin, if you are around, I'll let you speak for yourself on whether you enjoyed the social aspects of school!
I felt very lonely most of the time.
Part of being a friend is having stuff to talk about and being able to talk at the same level. Since I could talk as an adult about most topics when I was in the 2d grade, outside of sports, there was nothing I had to talk about with my age peers. It was like being a talking human on the Planet of the Apes, and most adults treated me pretty much like the Apes did Mr Heston, too.
The biggest thing in retrospect was that I was either motivated to be engaged with my class or not. Being challenged made me engage, otherwise, I tuned out not only the class, but those around me. Sports were challenging, so I enjoyed them. School was not.
It was not until HS that my age peers caught up with me - that and the fact that the HS was the top one in that district - and attracted the best students in the area - whose parents worked at the research labs. I lucked out. If it had been another HS or a rural school, I'd still been lonely. Once I was in the AP-level classes, I ended up making friends, going on dates, even worked in and acted in some plays, edited the paper, etc. It was cool to use big words and talk about books so I really opened up. I was respected for my mental skills and others found me attractive for that reason. I found other kids interesting as well.
I did enjoy sports all the way to HS and Scouts, as well as worked at local museums, too. The fact I was a bookworm was held against me during pick up games until I proved myself. Sports was one area where I could relate with anyone as a peer.
So I would have to say yes, but the caveat is that, off the playing field, I still hung out with those much older than I was, AND it was the top HS in a large metro area.
