OKWUeagle.com

by Tirzah Lily
OKWUeagle.com

This year on the campus of Oklahoma Wesleyan University there are at least four sets of twins.

The term “twins” derives from the ancient German word “twin” or “twine,” meaning “two together.” In a recent interview, we found out a little about them and their lives as twins and answered the age old question: Can twins really tell what the other one is thinking?

Kristen and Katherine Kelley, freshmen, are from Bartlesville, Okla. When asked who is older, Kristen offered, “I am,” and Katherine interjected, “But only by a minute!”

The Kelleys are similar in their sense of humor and personalities, but often people are shocked to find out that they are twins.

Kristen is four or five inches taller than Katherine, and their facial features and hair types are different as well. Katherine laments that because they are different sizes they cannot share clothes. “That’s supposed to be a plus of being a twin!” Katherine says.

Although they never plan to dress alike, Kristen says, “It’s funny because a lot of times, we’ll walk out of our rooms wearing the same things, which sometimes causes a fight as neither of us want to go change.”

Joe and Jarrett Deathrage, freshmen, are from Moore, Okla. As far as they know, they are the only twins in their family.

In elementary school, they dressed the same and had matching haircuts. Joe’s favorite memory with Jarrett is high school. All fours years of high school they had the same classes.

“It was like having your best friend in every class,” Joe remembered happily.

As for the infamous sympathy pains that twins are noted to have, Joe and Jarrett feel like this happens occasionally to them, especially when the other is stressed out about something.

When asked about being a twin, Joe said, “Being a twin has definitely helped make me who I am today. I wouldn’t have it have it any other way.”

Grant Teel is only one minute older than twin sister Sara, something that “he will never let me forget,” says Sara.

The Teels, freshmen, are from Tulsa, Okla. Their similarities run in sport choices – in high school they played both basketball and soccer and played soccer at OKWU this past fall.

The Teels like the same food and have similar reserved personalities. However, their taste in music is vastly different. Sara likes slow, easy-going music while Grant likes music with a lot of electric guitar and bass.

Since they are opposite gender twins, accidently dressing in the same outfit rarely happens. However, their mom used to dress them as Raggedy Ann and Andy, Dorothy and Scarecrow, etc for Halloween.

Grant transferred to another college this spring. “It’s the first time we’ve been apart,” Sara says. “I miss my brother!”

As Grant and Sara have gotten older, they quite often get asked if they are dating since they hang out together a lot – something they joke about quite often. They also get asked if they are identical.

“No, that’s impossible” is their retort, and then they usually laugh with whoever asked them.

Sara says she “can’t really think of one exact favorite memory with Grant. I just know what we’ve always been best friends and I know that will never change. It is fun just hanging out with each other.”

There are also some twins on campus whose twins are not here with them, including Mike Wilson, Men’s Resident Director, who has a twin brother, Steven.

Mike recounts this story about their high school basketball career.

“[Steve] is 6’ 2”. I am 5’11,” Mike says. “On our high school basketball team, he was the center/post, and I was the point guard. He set our school’s all time scoring record, and I set our school’s all time assist record. Every time I would pass him the ball to him, and he would score, the announcer screamed, ‘WILSON TO WILSON, FOR TWO!’

“The fans had t-shirts that said, Wilson to Wilson, and I had a t-shirt that said, ‘I pass, He shoots.’ He had a shirt that said, ‘He passes, I shoot.’ More than 75 percent of my assist were to him. I guess the twin thing played a pretty key role in our basketball success,” Mike says.

The Wilson twins’ similarities tend to end on the basketball court.

Mike loves music, games, saving his money, and is organized and usually neat; Steven loves cars; electronics, spending money, and is unorganized and a little messy.

Mike says that these differences cause them to not be as close to each other; however, they still love each other and stand by the other as well.

Twins run in Mike’s family. His grandmother is a twin; his mom (Laura) and Aunt Lora are twins; his bother Bill married a twin (Kim); Bill and Kim had twins of their own, Caleb and Hannah.

And, finally, the one answer we all are curious about…Are twins really able to read each other’s mind?

The Kelleys, Deathrages, Teels, and Wilson all said that they can finish the other’s sentences but attribute that to knowing each other well – not minding-reading abilities.