Back to ONE
There's a famous say that goes: "everyone came to the world alone and that's how they'll leave it". To me, such thing never made sense. Don't worry, I'm not saying this in a religious way. Actually I'm a twin. I was never alone. Since the 72 hours after mom and dad had sex, I have been two. Maybe that explains my difficulties with odd numbers.
I have an identical twin sister, and even though I don't think we could be any more different, we share the same mom, the same dad , the same siblings, the same birthday, the same last name, the same face and, of course, the same DNA.
The thing is, I was never alone my entire life. We could not stop talking to each other or simply ignore the other's existence, even when we were mad at each other. Our connection has always been really really strong even though we're so different. We're definitely complete opposites: we talk differently, we dress differently, we think differently, we have different tastes for boys and foods, and yet, we're a perfect fit. We're so close, one glance can say it all. We were always together even when we didn't have the same classrooms at school or the same friends. It was always like we needed each other to feel whole, like she had everything that's missing in me and she could find in me all that's not in her. And so, it was always hard for us to be apart for a long time. We always shared everything, even when we didn't want to. But even relying on each other so much, we always had very individual behavior. Our thoughts, actions, attitudes, opinions and decisions could set us apart in the blink of an eye, even with all the physical resemblance. As we grew, all the differences that we has grew too and matured in us. But still being so close, we always kept a sense of identity in each other.
When we reached the age of 15, our mother made us an offer: we could choose between having a huge 15th Birthday Party, which is really big and important like the Sweet Sixteen in the United States, or we could travel somewhere on a High School Exchange Program. We talked it over many, many times and finally decided to choose the trip.
In the beginning, we seemed to have forgotten that we'd be apart for 10 months. We were just so excited with the new experience ahead of us that everything else was just too little to matter. We wanted to travel, meet new people, live in somewhere new - since we were born and raised in the same city - have new experiences and, more than anything else, finally find out what is it like to be an only child (in the not having a twin sibling kind of way). It seemed pretty simple and easy to accomplish, but little did we know how much that would affect us.
Finally the day to departure came and we left our mom in Brazil along with every other exchange student's mom. In the Program, we got to go to Washington D.C. for a few days before heading to our host families with whom we would live for the next months. So far, everything just felt like a big vacation trip with friends and no parents, but on our last night in Washington, I began to realize I would leave Marcela and not see her for 10 months.
On the following morning, I got up and got ready and every student went together to the airport. As we got there, I started feeling sick to my stomach and this huge, massive feeling of loss invaded my body. When I walked Marcela to the departures' gate, I couldn't help the tears in my eyes and the freezing fear that I felt for finally acknowledging that I would not see her again for 10 months. I don't think I cried so much in my life as I did that morning; even when our dad passed away when we were 12. Never could I have imagined it to be so hard.
My first week without her hurt. I would cry from missing her every night until falling asleep. After a while, though, I began to get used to not having her around, although I still missed her the whole time.
Those 10 months away from her taught me how important she is to me and how much I love her. Being away from her felt like a huge part of me was missing all the time. From that experience I learned never to take her for granted again and to appreciate our time together, even when we're fighting and discussing!
The day I went back home, I left another family and many friends back in America, but I got my twin sister back. Finally, I felt whole again. I was back to being one.
It was all different, adventurous and fun, but I could never have imagined that with my 16 years of age, I would discover the biggest treasure that I have and that I've always had beside me, even when we were apart, my twin sister, Marcela. Today I am 21 years old, and nothing else has had a bigger impact in my life than this trip I made to Murfreesboro, TN when I was 16 years old and had to find out what is it like not to have a twin sibling.
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