Being Double

Would you want to have a twin?

Not just any twin -- but an IDENTICAL twin?

Twins -- even fraternal (those born from two separately fertilized eggs) -- are known to often stay very close in their relationship with each other throughout their lives.

But identical twins -- those who come from the same fertilized egg that then splits in two -- can have astoundingly similar life experiences, even when separated at birth.

When brought back together after some length of childhood separation, they often display the same haircut/style, the same (male) facial hair, the same choice of wardrobe -- and many of the same personal interests.

OK, so knowing all that, would you want to have/be an identical twin?

It’s an intriguing question.

Probably 99 percent of the human race is NOT a twin -- especially not an identical twin.

So there’s a natural “specialness” about identical twins that always makes the rest of us stop and stare when they walk by.

And that's something right there you’d have to deal with if you were one of those twins being constantly eyeballed. You’d have to either love the attention or be mortified by it.

But let’s go back to the beginning of your life as an identical twin. It would likely be pretty great to have another baby/toddler/kid your exact same age to play with in those early years.

But eventually you would realize what’s happened and know that you and your twin share all of the characteristics of both your Mom and your Dad.

When it’s time to go to school, you and your identical are constantly being mistaken for each other -- funny at first, but maybe not after the 100th time.

At some point in your growing up, you would likely have an identity crisis knowing the person you believe is so special and unique -- you -- really isn’t.

Because there’s a carbon copy of you out there.

Then there’s the agony (I would think) of having Mom constantly dressing you both the same because it’s “cute.” You go along for a while, but eventually you no longer think it’s that adorable.

Being an identical twin must be especially hard during those teen years when most are trying to carve out their own identity.

And wouldn’t identical twins generally want to do the same thing?

And if your relationship with your twin isn’t absolutely “in sync,” it could result in a number of heart-wrenching experiences as you fight and argue with your mirror image.

And finally, there’s love and marriage, which can be challenging for most non-twins and I suspect especially so for identical twins.

Can one twin get married and have kids while the other doesn’t? Obviously, it could happen that way.

Or -- and this is where it gets really weird -- when identicals marry identicals.

Whoaaah...the mind boggles...

Is there a competitive aspect that develops as twins go through their lives? It happens with non-twin siblings, so it likely happens with identical twins, too -- but maybe more intensely.

And what happens when one twin dies?

Yikes.

So do you think you could live a satisfying life as an identical twin?

If you ARE an identical twin reading this, you KNOW the answer.

For the rest of us, we can only guess.

But it must be a slightly strange existence.