Twin Issues

My middle name should have been “Issue”.

You see, I had always been full of issues even as a kid. Issues about my apple cut hair. About vegetables and vitamins. About anything, everything. But my biggest issue was this idea of making me look like the other half of twins, the other half being my sister Pie. It was awful. Anyone who saw us bought it. We were of almost the same height, the same build, the same hairstyle (or lack of it!) and our facial features were more or less the same. We had every appearance of being twins which we were absolutely not. And I hated it.


It was my mother’s doing, of course. She garbed us in matching outfits, sometimes even at home and most times when we were out. At Church, people would always have something to say about our supposed twin-ness. It was a good thing I was but a young wide-eyed girl who had no inkling her middle finger had certain uses or I would have flashed my small one left and right.


My mother was, naturally, innocent. She did not mean to offend my childish sensibilities — I can see that now. Maybe she thought it was cute, completely harmless. But for me it was just plain horrible. In the first place, Pie and I were as different as night and day. She was all girly whereas I was more of a tomboy. Meaning, we were not made for the same type of clothes. Second, most of those dresses looked pretty on Pie and almost always not on me which was just great for a five-year old’s self-esteem! Third and most importantly, I wasn’t cut out for assimilation. Clothe us as one. Strip us of our individuality. Of course, this was not how I put it back then.


So, at some point, I couldn’t take anymore of this look-alike-dress-alike crap and thereupon put my little foot down. The last time my sister and I were made to wear identical frocks was at a cousin’s wedding when I was 7, after which I refused to have another haircut similar to Pie's. And so it was.

Wonder twins… de-activate!