In the episode of Modern Family “Party Crasher”, Gloria expressed concern about having her baby on Manny’s (her 13-year-old son) birthday. She thought it would hurt Manny, and that she would neglect and hurt him by making him “share” his birthday. She tried to wait until midnight to have little Fulgencio.
As usual, I was watching this show with my own family. When we got to that part, my mother began to look surprised and concerned. “Do you think I neglected you?” She asked my brother. Oh, yes. I was born on my brother’s second birthday. But I really don’t think that that is what warped us, and in fact I’ve found it is quite common for sibling pair to have close birthdays.
There is, however, significant evidence that we are actually twins and this whole two-years-apart thing is a ruse. For starters, we look very similar and purportedly walk in exactly the same way. For another, I always know what my brother is lying, and it’s likely that it goes both ways. Oh, and more importantly (for him) I am his auxiliary brain, so when he can’t remember a word or a name or an exact quote from one of our books/movies/TV shows (which is most of the time), I know what he means and say it for him.
Most disturbing of all is our tendency to come out of our rooms wearing clothes in the exact same color scheme. Then, to avoid wasting ten minutes trying to find a clean outfit in a different color scheme (because I know he won’t), we have to go out like that. Therefore drawing “Oh, you guys look so cute!” comments from teachers, friends, parents of friends, random strangers, etc. This would only be okay if we lived in a sitcom, and despite out Annie-and-Abed from Community personalities, this is sadly not the case.
Our twin-ness is odd, but it’s pretty much a normal part of our relationship by now, like the fact that my friends will like/date him and I will be the third wheel (but you know what they say: without third wheels, tricycles wouldn’t exist!). I can deal with it, and on the whole we’re pretty close. Plus, he’s a senior this year, so hopefully we’ll get along better when we don’t have to deal with each other every day. Or maybe when he finally memorizes the first chapter of John Dies at the End and I don’t have to listen to him uncertainly recite it anymore.