Column: Double Vision
If you read the last installment, you should be fully convinced by now that sharing a womb/DNA/life with someone isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. But just in case there is still something inside you saying “You’re so lucky, I wish I had a twin,” here are just a couple more reasons you should reconsider that thought.
Waving at your own reflection is humiliating.
Sadly, this has happened on far more than one occasion. When it happens in the comfort of your own home, the confusion isn’t too hard to recover from. But when you wave to your twin in a public place and it turns out to be your reflection, there is some resulting shame that has to be dealt with. As teenage girls struggling with the usual self esteem and individual identity issues, we found ourselves in one of these unfortunate situations. In the Boise mall – there separately and with different friends – we both managed to wave at our own reflections in the same mirror on the same day. It wouldn’t surprise us if we lost a few friends that day.
You are constantly bombarded by questions.
Don’t even bother asking them. Just memorize these responses or cut this out and keep it with you in case you meet some twins and are overcome with the temptation to ask these questions.
*Do you guys ever fight?
What? Why would someone ever fight with a person who looks, dresses and talks exactly like them? Now that would just be ridiculous.
*Are you two best friends?
How well would you like your best friend if that person bought all of your same clothes, did their hair exactly like you and most people thought they were you? Creepy.
*Do you like being a twin?
Before you give in to the temptation to throw out this question, we will ask you this: Do you like not being a twin? Ponder on that.
You don’t harbor feelings of resentment toward the Olsen twins.
You’re probably thinking “How could anyone have negative feelings about cute little Mary-Kate and Ashley?” Well, if they didn’t set such an impossibly high standard for the rest of us twins, we wouldn’t. Their own multi-million dollar clothing/accessory line, a different set of hot guys that show them around every country they visit (ex: “Holiday in the Sun” and “Our Lips are Sealed”) and such wildly popular TV shows as “Two of a Kind” and “So Little Time” – come on now. Unrealistic expectations for the rest of us lame twins? I think so.
You know that uncomfortable feeling you have when someone is obviously talking about you?
Well, you get that feeling a lot as a twin. People don’t try to hide it too well either. I, Lindsay, walked past a group last week and heard [loudly] “Really? No way – I always thought that was just one girl I saw everywhere.”
Later that day, some girl I’ve never seen before whistled at me very loudly while I was in the TSC. After some slight awkwardness and me saying “Uh…hi” and getting no retraction of the whistle, it turns out she knows Lexie and wasn’t aware of the whole identical counterpart thing. After concluding that Lexie was very stuck up, the girl was then informed by others that the person she whistled at was not who she thought. Now Lexie’s friend refuses to say hi to her unless Lexie makes the first move. We are ruining friendships left and right. Ah, the rough life of twins.
Lindsay and Lexie Kite are both juniors majoring in print journalism With questions, comments or if you’ve been dissed by one of us, let us know at lindsaykite@cc.usu.edu