Part 4. Listen and Relax.

Keywords

identical twin, children, physically, diverge, adolescence, identity, complement, common interests, clash, same college, different.

Vocabulary

diverge, quirk.

You're going to hear a story of an identical twin, Listen and enjoy.

I am an identical twin and as children we looked exactly identical. So identical that we have to wear initials on our shirts so that teachers could tell us apart in school.
And I think that's quite often the case with identical twins, that when they are young children, they tend to be more identical physically than when they grow up, and I think the twins tend to diverge more as they get into adolescence and then into adulthood.
And I think it reaches its climax when you're an adolescent because as an adolescent, you are striving to be an individual but of course everybody looks upon you as one of a pair, so you have this real problem of identity.
My theory is that twins actually look alike physically but often they complement each other when it comes to their personalities and natures if you like.
I think in our experience, we complemented each other, we were the mirror image of each other.
So my brother was more introvert, was more academic, schoolish. I was, perhaps, or still am, you know, extrovert, more extrovert than him. And I think that's what we carried through our childhood really.
As children going through primary school, we got on very well. We were... we always played together, we had common interests.