Twins finding their own, individual paths at Trinity

SARA CURTIS ’18
EMILY CURTIS ’18
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
SARA: Being a twin is a unique experience. You are born with a built-in best friend, someone who you can tell your inside jokes to, someone who can understand your feelings before you even utter a word. While being a twin is central to my identity and makes me part of who I am, it can be difficult being a twin. People will stop trying to learn your name, using the easy cop out, “Well, you’re a twin, I can’t tell you apart.” When it came time to apply to colleges, one of the decisions was whether or not Emily and I would attend the same college.
Junior year had finally arrived and we were more than excited to begin the college process. Emily wanted to go far away and to a different college. On the contrary, I wanted to be closer to home and hoped that we would go to the same school. I had wanted to go to Trinity ever since I was 9 or 10, always saying to our dad, “I want to be just like you, I want to go to Trinity.” As the year progressed and countless college visits came to an end, we had to decide where we wanted to apply. Ultimately, we both fell in love with Trinity and I convinced Emily that maybe going to the same school would be a fun experience for the both of us.
EMILY: Flash forward to move-in day. As we make the trek from Boston to Hartford, my palms are sweaty and my heart is beating a mile a minute. We met our separate roommates and proceeded to attempt to carve out our own identities within the Hartford campus. Being in separate classes our first semester was helpful in creating our own identities because it prevented classmates from automatically grouping us together. A classmate of mine asked, “Emily, who is that girl that you’re always with that sort of looks like you? Is that your cousin or just a best friend who coincidentally looks like you?” Honestly, whenever I get that question, it makes me really happy because it means that I have been able to distance myself from the automatic twin label. Classmates and professors have been able to get to know and remember me.
Going to Trinity with my twin sister has been a positive experience thus far. Having Sara here has provided me a built-in best friend who completely understands me, someone who I can talk to about everything and anything. We have also had the ability to branch out and create our own friends. Though we mainly have the same group of friends, it is great meeting new people from classes and other activities because we can introduce each other later on. Coming from a small high school, this was impossible since everyone essentially knew most of the student body.
Now as sophomores, we have each been able to establish identities and our own interests. Sara has found herself as a political science major. I, on the other hand, have yet to find a subject that interests me as my major.
SARA: Going to Trinity with Emily has been a great experience, and I feel that although we are twins, we are very different. Ask any number of close friends, and they will tell you the same thing. I am very outwardly competitive, whereas Emily is quietly driven. Emily is messier while I am much more organized. I like to dress up for class, whereas Emily prefers sweatpants instead of a dress. All differences aside, we both strive for excellence in all that we do – in the classroom, or on the court.
We can both agree that attending Trinity College together was a great decision. We are able to share many laughs and memories that have made our college experience even better. As twins, we have the ability to spend time together but also have our time to ourselves and grow as individuals.