Last night I was a little hopped up on caffeine and had a tough time getting to sleep. So I watched TV for awhile and ended up on some show about twins. Apparently fraternal twins aren't all that interesting because everyone they chronicled was an identical twin. I don't really get the fascination with twins, but that's probably because I am one. And because twins run in my family; I have two sets of aunts who are twins, then my sister and I, and my cousin has twin boys. And every single one of us is fraternal. The thing about identical twins is that 99.9% of their DNA is the same, so they're basically the same person. Fraternal twins are basically just siblings who occupied the womb at the same time but are otherwise the same as any other pair of siblings. But there are still similarities in personality. My sister and I are almost identical in terms of personality and it's kinda crazy that we're still the same since my personality changed after the accident.
The thing in this special that kinda struck me was how all of these identicals talked about the connection they felt with one another. Just about all of them referred to their twin as a soul mate and I can't say I disagree with that. And I guess I understand why people are fascinated by twins in that sense because we're born with an immediate connection to someone else. And at the end of the day everyone wants to feel like they're connected to something or someone. But there's been a definite downside to the whole twin connection thing. Well, sometimes it's good because we can sort of sense how the other is feeling without even being in the same state. Many, many times when I've been on the brink of making a questionable decision, my phone rings and it's my sister. It creeps people out sometimes when that happens. And when I got into my accident, my sister says she knew something wasn't right and she felt sick. Then the stress of it all sent her into premature labor and her, my nephew and I were all in the hospital at the same time.
This show also made me realize I am very, VERY thankful my mom did not give my sister and I names that rhymed or started with the same letter. And that she didn't dress us in anything matching (some people do that even with fraternal twins, it's disturbing). I'm also glad she encouraged us to be individuals but then I think she had to do that after my brother came along. She knew she wouldn't be having anymore kids and she didn't want him to feel left out. So many of these people in this documentary talked about their parents keeping them in the same classes and not encouraging them to blaze their own trails independent of each other. Up until fourth grade my sister and I were always in the same classes because we had no other choice, our school only had one class for each grade level. After that we were, for the most part, always in different classes and we ran in different crowds in high school (some people didn't know we were even related). So we're lucky to still have an awesome connection but also be able to do our own thing.
I can't count how many times I've been asked what it's like to be a twin and I still have no idea what to say to that. I mean, I don't know any different. I don't know what it's like to not be a twin anymore than someone who isn't one knows what it's like to have a twin. I don't even understand what kinda answer people are looking for when they ask that. Whether I say it's terrible or it's awesome, I have to elaborate on why it is what it is. And what it is is pretty awesome.
