What are the first few things you think of when you hear Twins? Baseball? Exact look alikes? The Parent Trap? People who strive to be alike in every way. Well, not me. As a twin myself, we are two different people, and have two different likes and dislikes. But what is your answer to the next question:

Are Identical Twins mentally connected?

No, this isn’t rhetorical… it’s a question that doctors and even scientists have been trying to answer. Since we have the same features from the same DNA, we may have ways of being connected to each other’s thoughts. It’s strange, but if you know twins, they may have a way of guessing what the other one is thinking. Some can guess which color the other one is thinking of simply because they resort to pure gut instinct. My sister and I tried this, and it still needs work. Daphne blue and “Pizza color” aren’t exactly identical. But for sure are definitely connected. And when I say “connected”, it’s more than a best friend relationship. It’s way more.

Occasionally, my sister thinks to herself, and I hear her call my name. When I reply with “what?” she says “I didn’t say anything! I was thinking to myself!” Of course, we get a couple of weird looks from fellow students…. We don’t care because it’s “normal” for us. Also, when she’s had a bad day I just know. I’ll ask about her day, and after a brief explanation, I’m proven right.

It’s very common that we get peculiar comments from the girls who gossip all the time… they think having a twin is all about mixing people up…
“It must be so cool to have a built in best buddy! We could share clothes and text each other all the time!?”
“If I had a twin, we would share make up, and trick people! OMG! LOL!”
In my head: I KNOW! Sure. The twin thing was cool for two whole seconds. It happens every day. Woo hoo….GET OVER IT!
Pardon me for a random fact. I mean us. Identical, and Fraternal twins use the pronoun “we” or the word “us” more than anyone else in the world. It’s an interesting fact, but it is completely true!
Also, Identical twins… well… have Identical DNA, which is why we share the same features. Fraternals don’t because they didn’t originate from the same DNA. Some twins have identical beauty marks on their faces, or the same scar from the same incident. That’s right. Twins can get the same injuries from different incidents. An Identical twin has a mirror imaging thinking and processing pattern as the other one, and will do the same thing in different places. Just the other day, we were playing badminton, and I fell on my knee and got a large bruise. Later in the game, my sister had the same injury in the same place, doing the same thing. Shocking, I know. As well as looking alike from the outside, it’s not common to have identical features on the inside.
Weeks ago, we went to the eye doctor, and we both have stigmatism (When the front of the eye is shaped differently) in opposite eyes. My right and her left. The veins in our eyes are mirror imaging, and our fingerprints as well. I’m left handed, and she’s right handed. My sister and I are a rare case of twins… we are Mirror imaging, which makes up more than 45% of all of the twins in the world.
Isn’t that something?

Now, we move on to clothes. Just listen and you’ll know we have the same tastes. Let’s say I’ll wear a purple blouse, and I see a nice green jacket, and switch to that. Now, my sister didn’t see that, and comes out wearing the same blouse. DUDE! I HAD THE SAME BLOUSE ON SEVEN MINUTES AGO! WHAT JUST HAPPENED? We just don’t have the same taste in shirts, but we have a great sense for hats. We were at Sears, and I found a lovely hat. I called my sister to see it, and she came to me wearing the same hat. There was an awkward silence, but then we just laughed.

Now, let’s crack some myths here:

Mind reading: Not true! Sorry, but we can’t receive each other’s thoughts like everyone says. We have completely different brains. But, we have science together, and we both want to answer a question. Word for word, my sister says my answer. “And your answer, Ms. Scott?” asks the teacher, I reply “Nevermind! She completely took my answer…..” My sister chimes in “Sorry… but I just knew the answer!”

Feeling the other one getting hurt: Well, that’s sort of true; if my sister falls down hard, I get a horrible chill that doesn’t go away for a few minutes. But that doesn’t mean she should punch me and see if she feels it. We have tried this with a “poke war” and we just ended up hurting each other. Note to self: NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!

Knowing what happened to the other twin when she wasn’t there: Well, my sister came up with this category. (THANKS BUDDY?) When we were three, I got scratched by my cat Jasmine, and my sister was in another room, and heard me scream. My Mom thought she saw what happened to me (even though she didn’t), and asked her what happened. My sister replied that Jasmine had scratched me, and sure enough, I was yelling at Jasmine “Bad kitty!”

Well, all I can say is wow… I am completely blown away by the books that I have read, and the research that I have done for this commentary. I truly think that Twins are mentally connected. Well, I guess when it comes to Twins: Great minds think alike, But when it comes to guessing colors…. well…. that still needs work.