Double the Trouble, Double the Fun

I am a twin. And as a twin, one goes through life (or at least childhood) being constantly compared. More so that normal siblings.

But me, I get the easy side of the comparisons. I am the smart twin. It's what the grades say, the standardized tests. The world believes it. But my brother and I know the truth. He's smart too.

He got a 21 on the PLAN. I got a 28. So the obvious opinion is to assume I'm smarter.

He's the one going off and reading history books when I read my chick lit. He's the one running 5:50 miles while I bitch about it on blogger.

The most unfair thing? He's classified as special ed by our school. Because he takes speech therapy. The big secret? I took it for three years too. I could probably still use it. But in his school record, there it is, SPECIAL EDUCATION. It doesn't affect your brain. It is an awkward development of the tongue. That's why words get pronounced funny sometimes. But that doesn't mean he's an idiot. He can be more driven than me sometimes, which is actually pretty impressive.

I hate getting our grades compared. Our standardized test scores. Our GPAs. Where we will get into college.

Because I will always win that. But if I didn't exist, if it was just my brother, he'd be doing better.

He'd be trying harder, getting more attention for his academics. I'm glad I got a C in Algebra II, it made me a little less inflated, and put him back up to my level.

For one day, I'd like to switch places. I'd love my brother to be praised for falling into what the "selective" colleges would like to see. Instead of my highly selective paling his.

You see, we are growing up in the same environment, the same time. It's not like the shadow of an older sibling who will always do better. It's not trying to be better than your smarter or faster or stronger younger sibling. It's both. You have no excuse. It's the same time, place, same genepool. It's not fair.

Twins, if anything are supposed to be equal. Too bad they aren't.