by Alex Braun ’23

On November 7, 2004 at 10:16AM I was born. For 9 minutes I experienced what it was like to be a singleton; then at 10:25AM my brother was born and I have been living my life as a twin ever since. For the first 5 years of our lives, we wore the same shirt, just different colors. He had a blue dinosaur hat and I had a red one. We went everywhere together, did everything together, and slept in the same room. While I don’t want to do all of those things anymore, those experiences in my formative years established an amazing bond between us that I wouldn’t change. Still, as we grow older and more different, the pros and cons stand out more.

Sometimes it seems like I’m a twin first and my own person second. Every day people ask me “where is your brother?” or use me as a middle man to tell him something. I purposely do things to be different from him, like trying not to order the same item as him at a restaurant. We are constantly compared to one another by both others and ourselves. Who’s taller? Who’s smarter? Who’s more athletic? Who got a better score on the SAT? (I did). Yet, I gladly put up with the cons because it is all worth it. Having a built in best friend is something I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Looking forward, our bond will take a hit when we enter college and beyond. As opposed to the 50 feet or so of separation between us at home, in college we will be 750 miles apart and only see each other on holidays and summers. After college, we will go off on our own and live our own independent lives. While that may seem daunting to some, I’m not worried. Obviously we have phones to keep in touch, but even without texting and calling, we have a unique bond. No matter how far apart we are or for how long we don’t see each other, when we reunite it’s like we never left. As I grow up, a lot will change about me: height, weight, profession, where I live, hobbies, and even personality. I’ll even become my own person, independent of my brother, and people will know me as Alex without the association to Carter even crossing their mind. However, one thing that will never change despite anything and everything that could possibly happen to me for the rest of my life is that I am a twin.