Pauline Kirubi (08-1007)
The childhood of a twin
Do you know how it feels like to have this one person in the world that you shared a womb with? Came into the world together at the same time? Well, I can describe it as amazing, beautiful and unique for I have one. The thought of it makes me ask “isn’t God so creative?” Creating twins, triplets, quadruplets…it is artistic. I mean how do they breath, eat and develop inside one person? Allow me to call it the beauty of creation.
We came into the world on Sunday the 21st of January 1990 to a young couple in Nakuru. They were expecting one baby but they got two fraternal twins. The two bundles of joy were girls. Even though we still turn a few heads when we are together, I wonder how it would have been if we were identical.
We went to the same school, same classes and dressed in the same clothes both in color and design. The shoes too looked alike. We shared friends, in that her friends were my friends and my friends were hers. We even acquired names like ‘toto mbili fanana’ (two children that look alike), and ‘mapacha’. When walking to and from school, we would hold hands and walk in silence. It’s just…unexplainable.
When we were young, we did everything together; played together, liked the same kind of things and even had the same points of view. I wish we would have remained young. But to my mother…no, she wouldn’t dream of it. She tells us how stressful it was. When one began to cry, the other also did the same. “There was a day I joined you and cried too for I could not take it anymore” mum remembered with a smile. When we began to complain that mass had stayed for too long, the other would join in. There was even a time we declared loudly that the man beside my mother was stinking and so we should go home. Woe unto my mother if she ever bought different dresses for us! I would like her dress and she would like mine. Mind you exchanging them would not solve the squabble for it would all begin once again. So she ended up going back to the shops to return one of the dresses. In school, when you annoyed one of us, it would be like you had annoyed both of us so you had to deal with the two of us.
In high school, we got separated by joining different schools. Though it was our choice, we came to regret it. We felt as though we would never be together again. But as time went by, we got used to it. It made us learn how to be independent even though it seemed hard to cope. We have taken separate paths ever since we discovered our different personalities. Despite this, I always consider her as the most special person in my life, my other half.