There are also uncountable stories of people hating school and finding relief upon graduating, and this is plausibly because it's a bizarre environment composed almost exclusively of kids. Personally, if I was gifted enough to go to MIT at age 13, I'd much rather do that than go to a typical middle school, the OP's experience notwithstanding.
I did not have this experience; a commenter upthread did. I was very lucky and had the opportunity to go to a good middle school and highly accelerated high school (Thomas Jefferson HSST in Virginia). But, knowing what I know about normal middle/high schools and MIT dorms, I would have rather gone to the latter than the former if those were my options.
