True Story: I'm an Identical Twin

Yes, that's what they really look like. And they're so nice/smart/funny you can't even hate them for looking like Bond girls! I lived with Carrie (the twin in the foreground of the picture - I think) my junior year of college. Despite seeing her every day, I'd regularly confuse Carrie with her sister Diana when I saw her around campus. Eventually, I just took to addressing them both by their last name. Clever one, me.

Do twins run in your family?
I guess my great uncles on my mom's side were twins, but no, not necessarily. However, for whatever biological reason, apparently women age 35+ are more likely to have twins (my mom was 35 when she had us).

How frequently do people confuse your for your sister?
That depends. Though we do have somewhat separate lives if, for instance, Diana shows up at the restaurant where I work (most people there know I have a twin) and people don't know she's coming, they say 'Hey Carrie!' and try to start a conversation until she informs them that she's not me.

How similar are your personalities?
That's a hard one because to us, of course, we are two completely different people. But we do notice how similar we are sometimes. If I listen to a voicemail that I left on her phone- it freaks me out how much I sound like her. From inside my head, I sound different, but apparently from the outside we are quite similar.

Sometimes when we're having a conversation with someone, we'll laugh or respond in the exact same tone at the exact same time. A lot of times the person we're talking to doesn't notice because it sounds like only one of us responded. To each of us, it just sounds like stereo inside our own head. We usually look over at each other and check to see if both of us had actually spoken or laughed.

My mother says that starting from when we were in our cribs across the room, we've always had synchronized body language. That when we're near each other we subconsciously move similarly, shift our weight at about the same time, cross/uncross our arms at the same time, look the same direction. We also started having "abbreviated conversations" at a very young age. Both parents claim that we had extensive conversations in our own language in the back seat of the car together, long before we could ever speak English or communicate with anyone else.

Over the years, I've had to remind myself to insert major details into stories I'm telling to people other than Diana. Maybe it's because we've shared so many experiences or because we're constantly thinking along the same lines, but we can cover a lot of ground without saying much. I remember sitting in a restaurant with a bunch of people and I heard music we might recognize playing in the background. I caught her attention, looked up, looked back at her with a questioning look, and she nodded. That equated to "Do we know this music and is it from that one soundtrack?"..."Yes it is and we have it at home."

Have you ever switched to confuse your teachers, parents, friends?
Not very often. We did switch classes twice in middle school. Once for Home Ec - not very exciting. But it was amusing to watch it spread around the classroom as some of the other students figured it out told each other. The other time was for English and I remember going to Diana's class and the teacher saying "Goodbye Diana!" as I walked out the door at the end of the period. I walked out into the hall, did a u-turn, came back in the room and she said "Hi Carrie!"

This is slightly cruel, but I guess the only thing we still do is if we happen to be together and either of our parents calls one of our phones, the other twin will answer it and see how long it takes for that parent to figure it out. I think Dad noticed something about how we each answer the phone or our initial voice fluctuations, but we can still keep Mom going for a little while sometimes. :)

How do people react to you when you're out together?
Blonde twins? At the cost of sounding completely vain: they stare. It's like the normal rules of courtesy don't apply and because we're somehow intriguing- they can just stare!

However, when I see another set of twins I stare as well! It's fascinating to see the similar movements and mannerisms of another set of people (and pick out the differences). Which I suppose is what everyone stares at Diana and I for as well. Also, when I see another set of twins I always feel compelled to go up and let them know that I, too, am a twin. And compare stories and experiences etc. When a twin or twin sees us, they usually come up and do the same.

Have you ever had any of those 'she gets hurt and I feel it experiences'?
Maybe, though not strongly. A few months ago when Diana was going through a particularly stressful situation in her life, I would get these persistent headaches. I was drinking enough water, getting enough sleep, exercising, no PMS- nothing to explain it other than her stress. So I would call and tease her to stop stressing out so much!

Have you ever wished you weren't a twin? Or wanted to alter your appearance so we didn't look so similar?
I do remember going through a phase in high school where I didn't want us to look the same all the time. Of course it never helped when we'd each get dressed in our separate rooms not seeing each other, and come out into the hall between our rooms wearing the same thing anyway. What to do?

We've became masters at sharing and cooperating because we've had to. It was and always is nice to have my best friend built right into my life (painfully cliche, but so true). Our teachers attempted to "socialize" us by always placing us in separate home rooms (I suppose they wanted to be able to tell us apart as well). That might've helped, to a degree, but we never HAD to make friends because except for those few hours of school, we were always with the one person we shared the most preferences, abilities, and life experiences with anyway.

Are any of you a twin? Do you know any twins? Questions for Carrie?