Campus insight

Having a twin is no different than having a sister that you are really close to, with the exception that you share nearly everything with her. Growing up, my twin Sarah and I always had the same set of friends, had the same taste in music and TV shows, played the same sports, did the same activities and somehow grew to have distinctively different personalities.

Looks are not everything, but when it comes to being a twin, sometimes they are. I have lived through funny situations where a random person will run up to me screaming “Sarah!!” and ready to hug me only to find out I am Mariam. People will have full conversations with me and later tell me that the whole time they thought they were speaking to my twin.

There are many ups and downs of being a twin. My parents, for example, dressed us alike when we were younger, which was nice, except Sarah always had the pink outfit, while I wore the blue one. Sarah has always been amazing at school and my parents were always confused as to why I was not just as good. I have always been shy while Sarah was outgoing but while Sarah takes matters to heart, I could easily brush off an issue and in general I am more relaxed while Sarah is opinionated. Sarah and I do have an older sister, and when it comes to certain issues, I feel like Sarah can relate more to me because she can see a situation through my eyes, while Kinza, our other sister, looks at it through an older sister perspective. We did once try to switch classes in high school and while the teachers did not notice, it backfired when I had to take a pop quiz that was meant for Sarah and ended up failing it. We still do the same things together, we still lean toward the same set of friends, but we each have our preferences, such as how we dress and our interest in guys. There definitely are more positives than negatives to having a twin, because when my friends turned their back on me and I had no one, I could always rely on Sarah to be there for me. The kind of bond that we share is stronger than any friendship. I can say that if Sarah and I were not twins, we would for sure be close friends.