what's it like having a twin

Me, our older sister Ginny, and my twin sister Betsy

Today is my birthday, so typically it's a day everyone celebrates me!  But since I was born, I've had to share that day with someone else: my twin, Betsy.  When we were little, we were so very different.  We looked different: blond hair and blue eyes vs. dark black hair and brown eyes.  We acted differently: tomboy vs. girly-girl who even sewed her own prom dress and winter wool coat in high school. You might think that we were so different, that we wouldn't be close, but I'm here to tell you all the fantastic reasons why it's GREAT to have a twin (especially MY twin!)

• Someone to ride the school bus with you on the first day of school at each new school
• Someone to walk into any new situation with you as a kid
• Someone to let you borrow her books if you leave yours at school 
• Someone who would fall asleep while you were talking when you were in college...  and who still falls asleep while you're talking on the phone to her now because you live in different states... or who falls asleep while you're talking to her in person when visiting
• Someone to drive two and a half hours from her college to yours during her exam week to help you pack up your belongings when your exams were over (and who sprained her ankle helping you, so that you had to drive to her college and hang around to drive her to her finals with her sprained ankle)
  
  
  
• Someone to drive you home from her college the week of Thanksgiving (while you were visiting her) because you got mono and were too sick to drive home (only to have to come back to take her tests and then drive home three days later)
• Someone to share a car with you your senior year in high school after you totaled your car
• Someone to laugh with hysterically when you got caught in a rainstorm going on a ski lift in Gatlinburg, TN on summer vacation 
• Someone to help you chaperone a canoeing trip when you are a brand new teacher - and get caught in another downpour for hours....
• Someone to help you figure out how to set up a tent because your borrowed tent has a stick in the place of one of the tent poles...
• Someone to call when you're just really frustrated with being a mom and all the messy parts of being a mom
• Someone who cried when you got married - both super happy for you but at the same time knowing that a certain chapter in your life had ended
• Someone who will have "bad" days on the same days - even though living in a different state
• Someone who cheers you up when you're sad or down