I know what you’re saying. You know you’re not literally saying you’re the smartest person in the world, or anywhere near it. But you do have a higher intelligence and many people (parents, other relatives, teachers, etc.) noticed it. These people then think you’d be wasting your life if you didn’t use that intelligence in the “right” way (aka - what they think you should do).
I’m in a similar boat. To my parents, using my intelligence meant going to college for something “good” like Computer Science (which I majored in), Engineering, Math, something like that. Then get a job in one of those kinds of fields. That’s a smart job, that’s something you should do.
Thing is, the intelligence I have is much, much more on the verbal/language/visual side. I’d consistently score in the 99th percentile for those areas in standardized tests and my math would (comparatively) nosedive. But for some reason, many people don’t think this is good or useful intelligence. Smart == science, engineering or business to many.
And yes, it’s obviously your life, but when you hear, over and over and over and over, from everyone in a position of authority that you need to do X, Y or Z and you actually want to do A, B or C, it’s very hard to go against what’s been drilled into you.
I’m in IT right now and honestly I hate it. It’s not what I want to do; it’s not where I want to be. But it’s computers and it’s in a corporate office, so it’s “a good job”. I’ve totally internalized so many of these pressures that the idea of trying to do what I actually want to do makes me feel like I’d be giving up and wasting opportunities. I have to fight that internal battle constantly and it’s going to be a bit before I can finally not worry about what others think.