So we all know that everyone loves icebreakers – kidding, but I actually do, because I’ve been using the same fun fact my whole life – I am a twin! Of course, if my twin sister Maia goes first, then I’m left scrambling, or I’ll just repeat the same thing (which always gets a good laugh).Â
Being a twin is like a cute little secret I keep tucked in my back pocket; it always catches people by surprise, especially now that my sister and I don’t attend the same school, and our most distinguishable last name isn’t an immediate tell that we are related. I get asked the usual slew of questions: Does she go to school here? (no), are you identical? (no), do you have twin telepathy? (maybe). Talking about Maia is like talking about part of my own self, no different from talking about my own hobbies, my favorite music and colors, my classes.Â
I’m also always asked what it’s like being so far apart during the school year – while I’m at St. Bonaventure University, my sister is at the University of South Carolina (the real USC), a good 12 hours away by car. To be honest, it’s definitely weird to adjust after summer and winter break, but you’d be surprised how much catching up we are able to do across three-ish phone calls a day (the phone tag is actually crazy sometimes, though). When we are finally reunited over Thanksgiving break (and this year even sooner, as I am flying down to visit her over our upcoming fall break), we really don’t have a ton of stuff to even talk about; we’ve heard pretty much every detail of each other’s school lives at least twice over.Â
But of course, I am already dreading the flight home, the end of Thanksgiving break, and the start of the spring semester. We manage it well enough, but I truly don’t think twins are meant to be apart for so long. We’ve done pretty much everything together – we went to school together, and were even in the same class until we moved to a new district during the middle of second grade (it was tragic, really, despite our classrooms being literally right next to each other – we made it work though, and Maia even had me pulled out of class once to be used for her show-and-tell presentation). We did dance and gymnastics and soccer together, we shared bedrooms together, we graduated together, we did college tours together, and everything else in between. Maia helps me with my math homework, and I read over (and occasionally rewrite) all her essays; Maia knows what songs I want to hear in the car, and lets me roll the windows down even on the highway; I know when Maia needs reassurance over her upcoming anatomy exams (that she ends up getting 101% on anyways); I subject Maia to various types of screeching/screaming to Wham!’s “Last Christmas,” and Maia feels the need to tell everyone that she is exactly 56 minutes older than I am (*sigh*). She’s my perfect other half, and I’m the weird girl who won’t let go of her leg when she thinks I’m allowing her to go back to school (kidding of course, but I’m getting some ideas).Â
Siblings are great and all, but let’s be honest, only twins have shared a literal womb together, and it’s made us all the closer. I swear I just operate differently when we are together, like two cogs that have clicked into place, that just keep rolling around each other in their intertwined dance. Watch out, South Carolina: the Schwarzmueller twins are reuniting in T minus one week, and it’s bound to be earth-shaking.Â