The twins are back in town again

  • Brooke Fisher<br>
  • Monday, March 3, 2008 11:38am

When people first learn that I have an identical twin sister, they instantly have many, many questions. A bad joke or two also may follow, usually pertaining to telepathy.

People assume the life of a twin is something worthy of discussion. I hate to disappoint, so I usually rack my brain for something at least mildly entertaining to tell them.

I usually end up telling the same dry story over and over again — the one about how we were once on a TV special.

My latest twin news, which is far less glamorous, is that my twin sister just moved back to Seattle after graduating from law school in Oregon.

Our career as twins began with a typical twin childhood. Born two months premature, we each weighed about three pounds at birth. I am the younger twin by five minutes. Our parents called us Baby A and Baby B until they could settle on names that paired well. Eventually they came up with Brooke and Bridgett.

Mother dressed us in the same (but different color) clothing until we were old enough to dress ourselves. In childhood pictures, I always wore a shade of blue and my sister was clothed in yellow or pink hues. I’m still not sure why I wore the boy colors, and I’ve never asked why.

While many twins try to differentiate themselves from one another, we always remained close during our school years, most of which were spent in separate classes.

We both were enrolled in the same extracurricular activities, however, such as piano and dance lessons. I am fairly certain that our piano teacher, who we adored, couldn’t tell us apart the entire 10 years we took lessons. But she amused us, so we overlooked that shortcoming.

Like most identical twins, we have extremely noticeable differences in appearance. I am ever so slightly taller and used to weigh a few more pounds and even had puffier hair. And my sister has a much, much deeper cleft in her chin.

While our elementary and middle school teachers always tried telling us apart, in high school it was unusual for a teacher to be adept at differentiating between my sister and me. Many teachers played it safe by trying not to refer to us by name.

One teacher, who we both disliked, would call on us at the same time. Usually we both refused to answer. To this day, I still enjoy being called by my name.

During college, we lived in separate sorority houses on the same street, one block apart. After joining, there were several weeks of confusion as the 100 girls in my sister’s sorority and the girls in mine learned we were twins.

Until we educated everyone, it was common for someone to comment on how they saw me (or so they thought) on campus and I hadn’t been very friendly. Eventually my sister and I learned to say “hi” to strangers — just in case.

Now that my twin is back in Seattle, we still talk on the phone several times every day. We don’t live together, but do spend quality twin time with one another. And in just one week’s time, we managed to confuse a friend of a friend who didn’t know I had a twin. Not a bad record.

So, let this be a warning: if you think you see me, it may not be me. But even if it’s not, she’ll still say “hi.”

Brooke Fisher is a writer and editor with The Enterprise Newspapers.

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