Lora: Hi, my name is Lora.
Leo: And my name is Leo. Lora and I are twins, and today we’ll be taking you through a few moments in our childhood that helped define who we are to one another today.
Lora: After digging up an entire shopping bag full of makeup in my mom’s closet one early morning, my first instinct was to go find my brother. As two curious toddlers, we examined and played with each and every mysterious, new cosmetic item. We drew smiley faces on each other using the bright red lipsticks and colored our eyes with sparkly eyeshadow palettes. On a high after this novel experience, we proudly jutted into our mom’s room, waking her up and expecting amazement. But on the contrary, we got a 30-minute lecture and a quick spanking that left us feeling dejected for the rest of the day.
Leo: As toddlers, every day was a party. Whether it was me deliberately forcing my sister to perform a funny act in front of our parents, or her making me film her cringy TikTok dances, we explored the endless possibilities that childhood offered us together. Even more, by forcing the other to explore different interests that our own individual friends didn’t do, not only did we strengthen our bond, but we were able to take advantage of the unending free time twice over, like watching princess cartoons, while simultaneously building Lego sets.
Lora: This went on for a few years until we hit elementary school.
Leo: Going into the first day of elementary school, I was very, very excited. After what felt like an eternity, the morning arrived as I impatiently waited outside room seven at Lincoln Elementary School. With 30 other kids, each with their own sparkling blue and pink backpacks, lined up in a single-file line ahead of me, I paced back and forth, nerves filling my entire body. But surprisingly enough, these nerves weren’t from the intimidating experience of experiencing elementary school for the first time, or having the chance to make new friends. It was actually the anticipation about what was behind that big blue door that I saw lined up in front of every classroom weeks before. Seconds felt like centuries, and when the big blue door finally opened, I entered the room filled with glistening sunlight shimmering through the huge windows, and I saw what seemed like a whole new world for me to explore.
Leo: Sitting down, I felt the warmth from the sun and the roars of laughter of my classmates, but something about this beautiful day just didn’t seem right, and almost as if the universe was trying to tell me something, my heart suddenly dropped, and I got the daunting suspicion that something was missing. As my vision blurred, I looked around to attempt to figure out what exactly I was missing, but as I looked, and then looked again, I realized it wasn’t something I was missing — it was someone. My twin sister, whom I had spent every second of every day with for the first seven years of my life, was nowhere to be found. But instead of going out to search for my sister, who was supposed to be sitting right next to me, I was so in awe of the new future that I thought I had discovered, I decided to completely disregard her well-being and remain in the classroom to try to obtain as many new friends as possible.
Leo: After school ended, and I went home that day, I learned that my sister was actually sobbing outside the classroom. After that realization, I felt horrible, so the rest of that day, and the few days after that, I spent replaying the scenario over and over again, attempting to figure out what exactly I did wrong. Finally, after what felt like the millionth time of playing it over, I realized what I did wrong. I completely ignored my best friend — my best friend who cried by my side when we got in endless trouble — the person who gave me new dumb ideas to try. Being so hung up in the moment, I ignored what was really important to me.
Leo: From that day on, I realized that I needed to understand that I wasn’t the only person in the universe, and what other people felt also mattered. Now thinking back, I realized that having a sister allowed me to see the world not only through my lens, but also through hers, and that extra perspective has allowed me to try to understand somebody else, before considering my own thoughts and feelings, allowing me to view the world as not only mine.
Lora: My perspective was a little different. The first day of school for me started with anxious nerves. Waking up, I dreaded going to school and not seeing my mom for a consecutive six hours, especially in such a new environment. Every step I took, getting in the car to drive to LES and walking to my classroom, felt heavily weighted, as if my dread was trying to slow me down from going to school. Everything seemed much like a blur while I focused on putting one foot in front of the other. As I heard the distant sound of a bell ringing, I followed my brother and my classmates into a classroom. Just as I started to walk forward, the anxiety I had balled up in me took over and converted itself into the form of tears. I didn’t pay attention to anything else as I ran into my mom’s arms and broke down in front of my classroom, while all my classmates had already gone inside the room. I held on tightly to my mom’s arms, and my only recollection of this moment was when the teacher came back out and calmed me down enough to make me let go of her.
Lora: For the next few days, I slowly learned how to calm myself down before entering class. But what really took me out of my pit of anxiety was when I saw my brother’s face a week later as he entered the classroom. I had been so focused on dealing with my negative emotions that I hadn’t realized that maybe there was another way to look at this situation, in the way my brother had. After seeing his eyes light up before going into class, looking forward to talking to new people and learning from our teacher, it started to occur to me that maybe I could try perceiving attending school in that way, too, in a positive light that embraced the future rather than being stuck in the moment.
Lora: From that day on, I started to pay more attention to my brother whenever I felt down or worried. It wasn’t that his way of dealing with these situations was always better or more positive, but rather that it allowed me to think from a different perspective, and eventually realize that a single situation was oftentimes not as bad as I might’ve built it up to be in my head. Having my brother by my side broadens my view of the world, and it is this comforting feeling that my overthinking perspective is not the only one that allows me to often continue whatever I’m doing when it makes me feel anxious.
Lora: Whether it be realizing that others’ perspectives matter, or that you can use them to realize the world is bigger than your own in moments of uncertainty, having a twin has allowed us to grow as individuals who are much more aware of the world around us.
Leo: And I think that’s truly what makes us who we are today; two people, somewhat intertwined, knowing that we have one another and two separate worlds to live through and learn from.
“Background Music” by DeloSound on pixabay | Used with permission
