Imagine the first day at a new school. You’re scared and anxious to make friends. Finally, you befriend the friendly brunette sitting two desks behind you. You chat, make plans for lunch and feel a renewed sense of accomplishment: The most difficult task in high school is behind you.

When lunch rolls around, your new friend looks around the cafeteria. Anxiously, her eyes search the cafeteria and she realizes she doesn’t know if it was you or your twin she just spoke to. She resolves to sit with a different group of girls. You sigh, the scene all too familiar.

While being a twin is usually a fun and rewarding experience, twins are sometimes faced with the feeling that they will always be viewed as a unit and not as complex, different individuals, according to sophomore Sabine Sussman.

“People that can’t tell you apart, they’re basically saying they don’t care who you are,” she said. “They’re not going to bother to figure out which one you are, or they call you twin number one and twin number two which is so annoying because you’re different people.”

Sophomore Hannah Sussman, Sabine’s twin sister, agreed that they are very different.

“Sabine has always been more academic than I am,” she said. “At home we have really different personalities.”

While Sabine Sussman dislikes being confused with her identical twin Hannah, she said they remain close friends despite the challenges.

“She’s my counterpart,” Sabine Sussman said. “We get along most of the time; our relationship has gotten much better since we were little.”

Sophomore Patrick Webler agreed that the bond he and his twin brother, Jonas, share is unparalleled.

“It’s like having your best friend around you all the time, except it doesn’t get tiring,” Webler said. “If one friend invites us over it basically means both of us. We’re like a package deal.”

Hannah Sussman agreed with Webler, but said the constant company can be overwhelming.

“Sometimes it feels a little suffocating to have another person with you when they get on your nerves,” she said. “You just want to be alone, and it feels like you have a pair, and it gets frustrating.”

Junior Hannah Friedman-Bell said she shares some of Hannah Sussman’s frustration, but also liked talking with her twin Lucy about anything she is feeling.

“There are no boundaries when she talks to me,” she said. “She really understands me because she can see the way I see it.”

According to Hannah Friedman-Bell, having a twin is different from having an older or younger sibling.

“You’re not the same person, but you are the same age,” she said. “You have had the same experiences, and we are very similar in how we think and how we look at things.”

Hannah Friedman-Bell said that she and Lucy are almost opposites despite looking at things similarly.

“Lucy is more academically motivated, while I am more athletically motivated,” she said. “During lacrosse season, we both play. That’s one of our only similarities, and we always fight.”

Hannah Friedman-Bell said they try to get along by sticking to what they believe to be their territory.

“We’ve staked out how we are going to be different, so that there is less fighting,” she said. “I have always said I will let her be better at academics if she accepts that I’m better in athletics.”

Lucy Friedman-Bell agreed that she and Hannah often see things very differently.

“I like doing different things in my free time,” Lucy said. “I do mock trial, so we have very different interests.”

Lucy Friedman-Bell said that she and Hannah would prefer to be seen as independent from one another.

“I think that people tend to see me and Hannah less as individual people and more as a unit,” she said. “Sometimes I think it is hard to be seen as different from Hannah.

According to Lucy and Hannah Friedman-Bell, they are not the type of twins that are always together and always know what the other is doing.

“We’re not joined at the hip and sometimes people will think that that is what we are like,” Lucy said. “Or that this is what all twins are like, so sometimes it is hard to break away from this stereotype.”

Junior Arielle Knight, who has a twin brother, agreed with the Friedman-Bells about the difficulties of having a twin.

“To be at the same place at the same time, there is always constant competition,” Knight said. “Whatever we have we have to share.”

Knight said it helps to know what her strengths and weaknesses are compared to her twin.

“We’ve gone through all of the same things at the same time together,” Knight said. “So I feel that we are closer than other siblings because of this.”

Knight said because they have different interests, they can rely on each other more than other siblings could.

“Opposites attract; we are very different people. He is very science-based and mathematical,” Knight said. “I am more English-, language- and arts- based, but being so different actually helps us get along better.”

When asked to describe it to people who cannot imagine what being a twin is like, Webler grinned, his eyes sparkling, and said, “It’s just awesome.”

Conor Amrien and Noa Dalzell can be contacted at [email protected].