Conflict of double interests
you wish you had a twin.
Same interests equals serious conflict for twins:
We hit an all-time relationship low, when in eighth grade and again freshman year of high school, we felt it necessary to compete against each other in what became the ultimate battle of twin vs. twin: class president elections.
Seeing as how we shared all of the exact same interests and opinions and even equal pasts as sixth grade co-presidents, we took it upon ourselves to fight ’til the death for the eighth and ninth grade class president positions – much to the chagrin of our mom.
After some serious twin trash talking and mercilessly pinning friend against friend, we fortunately caught a lucky break.
This vicious contest could have caused some severe depression and twin angst, but instead, we came out even with Lindsay winning in eighth and Lexie winning in ninth grade.
We learned our lesson and found out it’s not all that fun to live with and share friends and family with your opponent. Sorry Mom.
“Are you sure you didn’t plan to wear the same thing?”
Yes, we’re sure. As it turns out, we have to call each other to plan NOT to wear the same thing.
Most days, we don’t care enough to bother, but matching outfits tend to weird people out when there’s no special occasion for it. When it happens, most would assume we’re trying too hard. But really, it’s because we weren’t trying hard enough.
Sometimes even trying to contact each other to avoid this fashion faux pas is more trouble than it’s worth.
Take just the other day for example: At a fully random point in our separate evenings and with no apparent reason for calling each other, we picked up our phones and got each other’s voicemail.
Some pretty intense skills are required to completely avoid having either phone ring and to hear no call-waiting beep either – strictly voice mail.
That coordination reared its ugly head again the next day when we ran into each other on campus, only to find we were sporting identical outfits. It was pretty unsettling.
Family relationships suffer when twins are involved
When we were little, our mom didn’t like us.
While she denies it, her actions in giving the mullet-like hairstyles and dressing us in neon biker shorts made this dislike all too clear.
The root of her disdain toward us, we suspect, came from our dependence on each other instead of on her. Our first conversations were with one another in a language she couldn’t even understand. When other girls went home and talked to their moms about their pre-teen woes, we saved our mom the trouble and talked to our twin.
Moving away from home has only complicated our relationship issues.
Now we both go through periods where we’re pretty sure Mom has picked the other as her favorite since she’ll get all of her phone talking in with one twin and not even need to talk to the other. But this road goes both ways because one of us always assumes the other has updated Mom on our latest happenings and won’t call for extended periods of time.
Because of this, Mom gets left out of the loop on such things as new jobs, scholarship awards, vacations and marriage proposals. Just kidding, Mom, we haven’t had any proposals – lately.
Lexie and Lindsey Kite are both juniors majoring in Print Journalism. Send any comments or questions to
lindsaykite@cc.usu.edu