My twin brother and I have never been one of those pairs who are best friends and finish each other’s sentences. In fact, we spent a lot of our time fighting over the smallest things. My brother and I can still only be described as opposites of each other. For as long as I can remember, my parents have always joked that any food I like, my brother hates, and vice versa. Sports wise, he plays hockey while I figure skate.
Twins Going to College
But the one part of our lives that was actually similar was school. In the beginning, we were separate thanks to our pleas to our mother to put us in separate classrooms. By the time we reached middle school, though, this was impossible. We had chosen the same classes and it couldn’t be avoided. Our history teacher had chosen to sit everybody in alphabetical order. I hated being by my brother so much that I begged my mom go to conferences and tell the teacher to change our seats. By high school, we had gotten used to being in the same class especially after we both chose to enter the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. At this point, we had learned to just ignore each other rather than cause a scene with our fighting.
The Application Process
As senior year approached, we went separately on college tours. I went with my mom and my brother went with my dad as we ventured to very different parts of the country. The only cities with overlap would be Washington D.C. and Chicago.
When the application process actually started, we were pretty secretive with each other. I knew some schools he was applying to but not all of them. One day when my mom and brother were going over his list of schools in front of me. I got pretty upset when I learned that he would apply to one of my top choices if he did not get into his top school.
Decision Time
We had both chosen to apply early decision to different schools meaning that if we didn’t get in, we would have to continue the application process. My brother was the first to hear back from his school—he had been accepted. I was obviously ecstatic for him because he had gotten into his dream school. However, his decision also caused me to be extremely anxious to find out from my school. As I look back now, I think I felt anxious because I felt pressure to live up to my brother. My decision day eventually arrived but unlike for my brother, my notice was full of disappointing news, rejection.
Minutes after my rejection, I felt relieved. I had realized while waiting for my decision that my early decision school was not somewhere that I would have been happy attending. Still, I cried that day. I cried because I was jealous of my brother who knew exactly where he was going to go and didn’t have to write a single college essay ever again. In my head, I think I also felt as if I was a disappointment to my family, even though that was so far from the truth.
Applying One More Time
Going into the application process again was not easy. I had to write so many supplemental essays and go over them with my mom. Given my feelings, we got into a ton of fights. I just wanted to be done with the college application process and I took that out on my mother. Eventually, I got the essays done and finished applying to my schools. Once again, I had to play the waiting game. I was fortunate enough to apply early decision II to a school so my waiting time would be less. When decision day finally came, I had gotten good news this time. I was accepted into a school that I really wanted to attend.
By going through the college application process with my twin brother, I learned a lot about myself. I learned that my brother’s life should not have such a big effect on my life. Despite my college process being longer, we both ended up at different schools that we are so excited to be attending this fall. Instead of being jealous, I learned to be excited for him as everything happens for a reason. Sometimes he will get opportunities I won’t and that is perfectly fine because I will also get amazing opportunities that he will not. While our relationship has always been rough, I am hoping that through college, we will finally learn to appreciate each other despite our differences.
