When my twin sister and I began applying to college in high school, we never had the intention of going to the same school. Although we were pretty close, we were never attached at the hip, so we knew that we would be fine if we ended up going to different schools. However, when it ended up working out that we would both be going to Notre Dame, I never dreamed of how great it would be for our relationship and for our respective college experiences.
Before we started school, lots of people questioned this decision, including ourselves. Would I lean too hard on her? Would we have separate friend groups? College was supposed to be a time to gain some independence after high school and learn more about ourselves. How was I supposed to successfully do this if I had my twin sister just a five minute walk from me? We had no idea if going to the same school would hurt our experiences as much as people seemed to think it would.
Because of all this, when we first arrived at school, we made a deal with each other: we needed to go our own ways for the first couple of months. We wanted to be cautious of leaning too hard on each other, especially in the beginning. We knew that if we relied on each other too much that it would make it so much more difficult to make new friends and pave our own ways later on. While we would still check in with each other regularly, we did our best to do our own thing for the most part. We made our own friends and our own plans, though we crossed paths here and there.
While it was hard at times, this ended up being a great idea, as we were both able to form our own solid friendships while still having each other to fall back on. As freshman year continued, I was able to introduce her to my group of friends and I was excited to be able to meet so many more people through her as well. College can be an extremely difficult adjustment, so even though we were doing our best to be as independent as possible, it was always a huge comfort to know that she would always be there if I needed her. As we have now continued into our sophomore and junior years, I think we have grown much closer and our relationship is even stronger than when we started college. We know when to give each other space and when it’s okay to spend more time with each other. No matter what anyone’s reservations are about going to school with your siblings, there’s something to be said for how much more fun it is with my sister around. Our time at school is supposed to be some of the most fun years of our lives, so I love that I get to have my twin along for the ride.Follow HCND on Twitter, like us on Facebook, Pin with us and show our Instagram some love!
Photos 1, 2, and 3 provided by author