This is me and my brother nick. As you can see we are very similar and a lot of ways, must being visual because we are identical twins. We have the same DNA, same height, weight and tone of voice. which is funny because we haven't worn the same clothes since our little sailor outfits when we were 10 months old. We often get asked questions like "can you feel it when i hit your brother?" or "can you two communicate with each other in your heads?". My favorite one is when people ask how they can tell us apart, which than i usually start to laugh, because if you can't see i have a HUGE brown thing on the right side of my face. My mole. It almost makes me ask how they usually tell people apart if they dont look at their facial features. This is just one of the many things that differ between us. I however, didn't always have this love for this hairy invader on my upper lip, a actually hated it. It may have been something that was different, and created a distinction between me and brother im not sure, but i wanted to cut it off. If fact, before i knew Enrique Iglasias was a famous singer who made out with Anna Kournikova, i knew he had a mole. Some ridicule followed my mole, but not much. It was more of a internal hatred during my 4th and 5th grade years. During these years i also belonged to a aftercare center called "Kenwood Rec-center". Here most of my friends we involved too. The so-called "care-leader" Will, sort of ran everything. A young up-beat guy, who was really good with kids. He was awesome and not only me but everyone else wanted to be like him. He's also what someone would call a stereotypical "Bro". I had explained to him about my loathing discussed i had for my mole.Will brought me back down to reason when he said "Why cut it off? chicks are gunna dig it when you get older." From this moment on i saw my mole differently. I actually liked it and believed that i was lucky to have this thing on my face. It's a built in chick magnet, is what he later described it as.
This almost meaningless conversation to most had a big impact on me and how i perceive my mole, but more generally myself. i guess it just made me comfortable with a difference and distinction. To tie this to a grand narrative, me and my brother aren't really that similar, we look the same but thats about it. Most twins have troubles separating and being away from each other. I just see this as a moment of our beginnings of breaking that grand narrative.
Josh,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I have to say thank you for your great comment you left on my blog post. It must be the one two weeks ago but I really appreciated it. Anyway, I really like your story. I've met numerous sets of identical twins and having a twin with the same DNA is a really unique opportunity to put the grand narrative theories to the test. If you and your brother are supposedly exactly alike and raised in the same environment, shouldn't you end up living similar lives? From what little I know, I assume that you and your brother probably have plenty of differences (starting with the mole, which, by the way, I think looks great on you). I think this supports Marx's idea that individuals do have agency. You're not necessarily locked into a single path from the beginning, you have the power to create your own identity and blaze your own path in life. Great stuff, thanks for sharing.