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For all of these reasons and more, I cannot imagine my life without my fraternal twin sister, Erica.
Life with my sister is a continual give and take. When we were one and one half, Erica "translated" my baby talk for my parents. While for months I developed welts across my two-year-old face from my zealous amateur walking into walls Erica was able to stand up and saunter across a room by observing my mistakes. We shared our Bat Mitzvahs, obsessive soccer coaches, Italian pop quizzes, and trail-blazing snowboarding jaunts.
The extent to which we are a part of each other's lives is ridiculous. Erica told me the other day that she started hysterically laughing when she was watching a health video because she had imagined me making an outlandish comment. I'm so used to watching television with her that I can be watching a movie by myself and I'll find myself making snide remarks about the Parent Trap to ... nobody. Erica's health teacher Harlan Edelman once mistook me for her without knowing she had a twin. Whether it was because of his freaky sense of intuition, or the surprising extent to which we look alike, I felt weirdly elated. Although I hadnt seen Erica all day, I found myself unexpectedly connected to her through her teacher.
 Our close relationship sometimes surprises people. They assume that most twins dont enjoy being twins. I think this stereotype is created through the lack of individuality forced upon identical, and sometimes fraternal, twins. Thankfully, our parents weren't ones to push for either competition or similarity. Instead of dressing us in identical outfits or comparing our strengths and weaknesses to one another, they let us choose our own clothing and focused on our individual strengths.
Though Erica and I werent labeled at home, we've experienced a lot of twin ignorance outside of our family. Our elementary and middle schools, Lakeshore and Rooftop, made it their policy to separate siblings. However, thanks to our parents insistence, we remained together at Lakeshore.
Looking back, I'm thankful for my parents insight. If they had acquiesced to the school's policy, Erica and I would have been pushed in opposite directions at an age when we needed each other's support to grow mentally and emotionally. However, when we entered Rooftop, Erica and I were separated. This time, our parents allowed it. In retrospect, I again agree with their decision because Erica and I both needed some room to grow.
For most of our lives we participated in all of the same activities, including club soccer. Club soccer required a commitment of four days a week. We used to run around half-dressed in a panic to get to practice on time, change clothes in between tournament games and rock out in the car together. After seven years of nonstop goal and penalty kicks, I decided that my interest in club soccer had become more habitual than passionate. Soon after I quit, I began interning at a pet hospital and volunteering at an animal rehabilitation center. Since this change, Erica and I spent much less time together. With less time to see each other, let alone talk, we suddenly realized how much we should value our relationship. Now, we do not let ourselves take our intimacy for granted. The time we do get to spend together is crammed full with laughter, love, and plenty of stories.
Despite middle school friends who have tried to separate us, teachers who have compared us in degrading ways, a rabbi who has known us since we were two and still cant tell us apart, toothbrush-stealing and broken promises, our twin-ness still stands.
I don't ever want to lose the connection I have with Erica. And with something as strong as what we have now, it seems it would be hard for that to happen. However, people can easily grow apart with miles, new friends, and time between them. And with the approaching college years, our connection could diminish. While working on college applications on the same crummy 2000 Power Macintosh G3 computer, taking college tours together, finding ripped apart crows on the sidewalk and watching in agonizing disappointment as our GPAs drop without that A in PE, Erica and I have decided to go to the same college.
Where others may be searching their entire life for their soulmate, I've already found mine. And I have no plan to let her go.
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