I go to UT with my twin sister

When a lot of students go off to college, they usually have to do it alone. Discovering classes, new study spots, and making new friends, are mostly done by yourself unless you get lucky and have a good friend or sibling going the same place as you are. I was one of the lucky ones. But, I had a very special person coming to college with me: my twin Malyssa.

Before we left for UT some people would ask if I was going to be afraid living in a new city alone, where I didn’t know anyone or anything. I wasn’t, I was ready to start my new chapter of life, and I sure wasn’t going to do it alone, I had my sister right by my side.

When we first moved in, we didn’t go anywhere without each other until classes started, unless we really had to. We went to socials, met the same people, made the same friends, everything for the first four or five days of being in Austin we did together. We got used to being asked the question “are you twins?” after the first day. I think it took some people by surprise that even though we look so much alike, we are very different individuals.

When classes started, we of course started making different friends, and it never dawned on us that it would be helpful to other people, if we told them there was someone who looked exactly like the other roaming around campus. Soon I had random people who I had never seen before waving at me and greeting me. At first I thought maybe I had forgotten who they were, but then I realized that I truly didn’t know any of those people. Then it occurred to me, they think I am her. It actually took a bit of time to realize this actually. Someone actually had to call me by her name in order for me to realize what was going on.

You see, before coming to the amazing city of Austin, we lived in a very small, cute town in south Texas. Everyone knew who we were down there, we didn’t even have to say it. There were people who I didn’t know, but they sure knew who I was. My sister and I got used to everyone knowing we were twins, that we kind of automatically assumed the rest of the world knew too. Boy, were we wrong.

When I eventually have to tell people who I really am, the reactions I get are great. Most of the time it’s surprise and disbelief, other times it makes complete sense to them. Some people would wonder why the person they thought they saw throughout the day, changed clothes so much. It would be funny when someone would tell me they saw me in a certain building, when I would have no recollection of ever being there. I have to ask, “what was I wearing?” then from there I would be able to tell them if it was me or not.

When we joined clubs, it got really interesting. We both joined the Quidditch club, I play for Hufflepuff and Malyssa plays for Ravenclaw. Our teams had different practice times so we never had the chance to be introduced to the other’s team. When house matches came around, our teammates were super confused. My team color is yellow, my sister’s is blue. When some of her teammates saw me wearing yellow, they asked me if I had switched teams. I was confused at first, I had no idea who these people were. Then I saw what color they were wearing, and pointed them towards my sister sitting a few feet away. The reactions were priceless, no one had realized there were twins playing on separate teams, and I don’t blame them. I mean we forgot to tell them too. This wasn’t the only time this happened either, but it happened a little differently the second time.

In the middle of the semester, I joined a spirit group, Texas Hype. My sister wasn’t able to join as she was busy with other things at the time. I had been in the group for what I believe a whole month before any of the forty people who were in it, except for one, knew I had an identical twin. I thought I had told them, I honestly did, but my memory deceived me. At our first social event, we were allowed to take a guest. I took my sister. When we walked in, people were freaking out, they couldn’t believe that I had a sibling who looked exactly like me, but never told them. Again, I thought I did but I was wrong. It was a very funny experience.

As twins we get a lot of questions and I would like to answer a few. Yes, we are roommates. No, there is no mean twin and there is no smarter twin between the two of us. I may be a bit more reserved, but that does not make me “mean.” Yes, if it is strong enough we can feel each other’s pain. And I don’t know if we have “twin telepathy.”

I can’t imagine coming to college without her, I feel like I would miss her to much. If we had had to go to different colleges, I would probably be nervous wreck wondering if she was OK. I got lucky. Not a lot of people, even a lot of twins, can say they went to college with someone as close to them, as my sister is to me.