Definitely you are not alone. As a parent of a HS senior, I could feel that my son has a lot of stress about college.
Here’s my 2 cents:
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You have been working hard for yourself and for your future, not just for the college admission. You’ve developed the work ethic, self-discipline, the willingness to go extra mile. That will stay with you long after the college admission process is over. You’ve earned it, you’ll keep it and that will help you be successful along the way. You mentioned that you’ll probably end up at the same place at the others who coasted through HS taking easy classes, but you’ll be in a different “place” because you’ve already had the work ethics. It’s similar to how you differentiate yourself in the workplace: there are tons of colleagues but you can distinguish yourself if you do the right things instead of just collecting paychecks.
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Not many people knew what they wanted to be when they were 18 and ended up doing that years later (I thought I wanted to be a doctor and then oil & gas engineer. Fast forward 30 something later, here I am an accountant and love the profession). Be open to options and change.
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Talk to people who have experiences. I know talking to parents are not popular for teenagers but find family members, teachers, or people who can give you perspectives.
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At the end of the day, things happened for a reason (I am not religious but very spiritual). As I told my son, “you’ve done your best: with your rigor, grades, tests, ECs and you write the essays that describes who you are. Those are the things that you can control. You can’t control whether the AOs think your essays are good enough or fit with what they are looking for, you can’t control whether your EC is “good” enough for them. Don’t worry about things you can’t control”.
Do your best, see where you get accepted and where you feel comfortable. We always reap what we sow, so as you’ve worked hard, you’ll get into the right school for you.
All the best to you!