Pros and cons of having an identical twin

Please bear up with me while I try to make this article as relatable as possible to all the kids with doppelgangers out there.

PROS:

My brother and I haven't pulled off twin stunts like exchanging schools for a day as our friends have suggested, but I vividly remember one day striking up a conversation with one of my cousins by taking my brother's place and getting to know of a secret she had told my brother, but didn't want to let me know. Later when she found out, it was just super embarrassing for her. Well, she was mostly to be blamed because she was just another person who hadn't grasped the art of distinguishing.

Other than the natural advantage of pranking, twins have a telepathic connection, and I am not even exaggerating. While comparing the level of telepathy of twins to Professor Xavier's might be a hyperbole, twins have this built in ability to draw out a conclusion from the expression plastered on each other's face.

When it comes to making friends, we have many mutual friends who can be categorized into "Which one are you?" and "Oh you're Jamal, not Kamal." And having so many mutual friends saves up the daunting task of investing time in building friendships separately.

In between twins, grudges don't work for long. They just don't.  Despite having lots of differences, at the end of the day, one has the other one's back. I have countless memories of sparking an all out war against my twin and yet having my back covered. The best part about this is that we don't even have to formally apologize and go through the "sorry" and "it's okay" moments. We didn't sign up for this.

I don't want to lower the other pros in rank, but I personally think the best advantage of having another version is being the cynosure of all eyes in the room. When you have a twin, literally everyone bombards you with their attention spans, and it's a luxury we signed up for.

CONS:

While I believe that the unending attention span is the best of all pros, I also believe that it's a curse dressed as a blessing. Because garnering attention is all fun and games until the silliest of questions start growing thorns and keep turning into repetitive, irritating garbage that we don't deserve, but get anyway. It is always annoying for twins to answer if one gets hurt then whether the other one is hurt too or not.  And worse, sometimes the questioner (if well known) even tries out an on spot experiment.

Another question which is very embarrassing to answer is, "Who is the elder one?" I mean, Come on, seriously? Do we have to go there? Why can't people just accept the fact that twins are of the same age and it is very embarrassing to reply "2 minutes"? The world would be a much better place if done so.

Like having the same physical features, many believe that twins are also the same in other aspects, which further leads them to draw comparisons between a twin pair. Ultimately, a toxic rivalry stems from it. Twins are compared as if individualism doesn't exist and they aren't original in their own sets of traits. The ones who point out the differences, stressing on how dissimilar one sibling's characteristics might be to the other, are usually the same people who take everything literally.

With the aforementioned cons living up to the word's definition more than perfectly, this one is the worst. Boy, are you neck deep in trouble when your twin creates a mess, but the fingers are pointed at you anyway even though you are clueless.  The blamers barely understand that you are not your twin. We folks are mostly to get coloured for a lifetime due to whatever troubles the other versions of us invite.

Enough being said, I believe the co-existence of "WOW, you guys are twins?" and "What if your significant other confuses your twin for his/her partner?" is what makes the lifelong journey of having a twin sibling special in its own sense. From having major clashes to #relatable moments, identical twins are the embodiments of a copy-paste assignment done right.

Shah Tazrian Ashrafi believes the existence of the words 'elder' and 'younger' between twin siblings is as pointless as dying in the name of a whale. Help him convince the world at facebook.com/shahtazrianashrafi