What is it like growing up as an identical twin?

By Felicia Roehm

Many people meet their best friend through school, clubs and jobs, but luckily for me, I was born with my best friend.

I am an identical twin. My sister Francesca and I were born less than a minute apart. Our bond has lasted our entire lives, so we have always been extremely close. We have had the pleasure of growing up together and doing a lot of the same things. We are both dancers, both of us work at Dunkin’ Donuts and we both attend Rider. We are often asked, “What is it like to be a twin?” but we both don’t know any other way. Although we do a lot together, there are a few differences.

We both took our first dance class at four-years-old and since then, we have fallen in love with dance and both competed for the past five years. My favorite style of dance is contemporary, and Francesca’s favorite type of dance is the classic type of jazz. I am majoring in journalism, and love to read and write, but Francesca, who I call Frankie, is an entrepreneurial studies major who aspires to create her own company one day. We do have a few different interests, but even in college, we are still involved in a lot of the same activities. We are both dance minors and are in the Rider Dance Ensemble as choreographers. We are both in The Gail Bierenbaum Women Leadership Council and are event co-chairs for the council as well. We usually have the same friends because once someone meets one of us, they most definitely will meet the other.

The question of whether twin telepathy exists is very common, and to an extent I think it does. There are many times when I know exactly what Frankie is thinking, but I will never know what she is thinking at every minute of every day. I also believe that since we know each other so well, I understand how she acts and reacts to different situations.

We also get asked a lot whether we have ever messed with someone by pretending to be each other. Unfortunately, we have not, but in Francesca’s first semester of freshman year, she was in a sociology class and never told her professor that she is a twin. I will now be taking the same class next semester, so that professor is going to be in for a jarring amount of deja vu.

Being a twin is more than just having a sister or any sibling. I couldn’t imagine my life without Francesca. I am so grateful to have a twin that I can always rely on. We continue to support and help each other every day. Elvis Presley was actually a twin, but his twin brother Jesse died at birth, and Elvis said that he felt like a part of him was always missing. I think that if I didn’t have Francesca, I would feel like a part of me was missing as well.