Twins and Triplets: The Freshman Multiples of LV
I’m a fraternal twin, and I have been my whole life. It’s fun, sometimes, to be a twin. My sister and I would play pranks on our teachers when we were younger and we would switch classes every once and a while to throw them off. We would also get away with tricking our parents, and sometimes, they just mix us up on accident. Trust me, it still happens. There are disadvantages to being a twin as well. For starters, people often get me and my sister’s names mixed up; usually it happens to me, not Anna. Being twins of the same gender means that we have to share a room, so that's not too fun, mainly because we are two very different people who don’t particularly want to spend every waking moment with each other. The most frustrating part of being a twin: being expected to be exactly like each other in personalities and characteristics. Just because I’m a twin, doesn’t mean I am just like Anna. Just because a person likes Anna doesn't mean I will be just as likable.
Twins are everywhere throughout society, and are becoming more and more common due to genetics, family trends, and improved infertility treatments. Approximately 6%, (266,310) of kids born in 2015 were twins as opposed to 2000, where there were only 237,832 kids born a twin. For triplets on the other hand, they are becoming less common since in 2000. There were 6,742 births of triplets while in 2015 there were 4,123. In the LV Freshman class alone, there are six sets of twins and one set of triplets. That’s 15 people, about half a classroom of students who share the same birthday.
When asked in the survey what the multiples thought about being a twin or triplet, they all said that they liked being a twin or triplet, and as to why, one twin genuinely answered, “Yeah, it's pretty interesting, it's just something that's unique-- even if I act like I don't enjoy it or I hate my twin, I really don't. Not many people get to be born with a best friend, but twins and triplets do, I think that's super cool and special.”
An interesting discovery in the survey was that they were all born early. Approximately
are born before 37 weeks (as opposed to the normal 40 weeks) and up to 15% are born before 32 weeks. The reasons for early births can vary from high blood pressure in the mother, to infections and most commonly, premature labor, which scientists are still trying to figure out how and why it happens.
Being a twin is definitely rewarding, whether that be because of the potential pranks, or just having someone to watch our backs and collect our homework when we’re sick. Multiples might not always admit it, but we all love, or at least care about our better halves, even though we might pretend to despise each other.