On being always the best of the slightly worse

Ok, so I got my degree results today. I got 68% overall, which is the highest 2:1 mark on my course this year. It isn't quite a 1st though obviously.
It's got me thinking a lot about how I always seem to be slightly less than the best: the best of the slightly worse people. I (and the other people who got 68) am the best of the people who got slightly worse than a 1st.
I recently entered 2 of my short stories into a competition and both of them made the 'longlist'. This is a list chosen by a panel from which the shortlist is selected, and the winners are chosen from the shortlist. The fact that I made the longlist means that, again, I am one of the best of the slightly worse. My stories didn't make the shortlist. They made the longlist, which doesn't have the same ring to it. 'Shortlisted for the ---------- ------------- short story prize' sounds a lot better than 'Longlisted for the --------- ------------- short story prize'. But then, I made the longlist. I wasn't just put on the heap of things that didn't make the longlist. So that's good.
During my A Levels, I took an Advanced Extension Award in English. This was an extra little something for people who were good at English. The marks you could get, in prestige order, were Pass, Merit and Distinction. Predictably, I got a Merit. Not quite a Distinction, not as bad as a Pass. A Merit. My work merited Merit, but wasn't distinctive enough for Distinction. This was typical.
All of this sounds like I might be complaining, but I'm actually not. It's quite comfy here, at the top of the slightly worse people. I'm not astoundingly clever, but I am by no means dim. I am slightly, but not notably, above average. To confirm this, I took a (probably not very reliable) internet IQ test. I got the mark of 117, which is above average but not superior. And I think I'm actually OK with being above average but not superior. I am normal. And if I ever want to feel slightly better than normal, I can tell myself that I am above average. (But not superior.)