It's simple and innocent. It's usually mildly interesting. It's one of those faithful and fool-proof icebreakers that never fails to push a conversation forward.
"Do you have any siblings?"
Being a triplet, this has become one of my favorite points of conversation when meeting new people. I've formed a habit of saving the big surprise until the very last minute. The reactions are always so fun and are quickly followed by the onslaught of questions about what it's like being a triplet:
"Do you all look alike?"
"Do you all get along?" and my personal favorite, "Can you read each others' minds?"
I've come to appreciate the ability to call myself a triplet and having this thing that makes me a little different from the person next to me. It's not all triplet-telepathy, though, and these are some things that every triplet experiences growing up one of three.
1. Being the same age
Of course, this one was pretty obvious. My brother, sister, and I experienced every and all things together! We all started school together, graduated together, we went to our first zoo together and learned to fly fish together (although my sister is by far superior at that compared to my brother and me).
Throughout our entire lives, we've been in stages similar to each other, and although we each had our own unique experience, it was always so comforting having two other people to grow with!
As great as it usually was, having two other people to go through life together, that also meant everything was shared. I remember going to friends' birthday parties where only one person was being celebrated and thinking that the concept was so cool!
Especially as a child, sharing everything was never really my favorite thing and I always found myself wishing that I could say that it was my birthday or my graduation, my week at church camp or my week spent with the grandparents. For most of my adolescence, I wished I didn't have to share so much!
2. Being fraternal when everyone wants you to be identical
My 2/3rds and I are fraternal multiples, so outwardly, we don’t look alike as other identical multiples do very commonly twins. It's extremely rare to see identical triplets just due to the complexity of one egg splitting into three, but plenty of people don't consider this (I sure didn't for the longest time, to be honest...), and although it can happen, it didn't happen to us.
I’ve always enjoyed being one of a fraternal for the individuality that it gives us as triplets, especially when it comes to my sister and I. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve met identical twins and I think that is super cool also! But I’ve always loved my thick brown hair and shorter build while my sister is taller, slender, and much more blonde!
Growing up, we were never mistaken for one another (at least not all that much; our mom did mix up names a time or two between the three of us and the dogs… but that’s another story!) and our outwardly individualism reached into our inward individualism!
As I mentioned at the beginning, most everyone asks if my triplet siblings and I are identical when they first find out about our multiple-ness. When I let them down and say “We’re not identical but my brother and I do look very similar and we all have the same nose!”, they do tend to flash a disappointed frown before moving on to ask if we have triplet-telepathy. I do love being a fraternal triplet but what I don’t love is disappointing people when I tell them that we don’t possess the ability to trick people with our identical-ness.
3. Having built-in best friends as well as the most annoying housemates you'll ever experience
These days, my brother, sister and I are best friends. When we're all under the same roof, we joke and laugh, recite our favorite movies and belt out our favorite songs at the top of our lungs together. I look forward to those moments when we can all be together, especially since we all live in different towns. I can depend on my siblings for anything, whether it be a partner or 2 in crime, shoulder to cry on, or someone to go fishing with.
Growing up, however, we would knock heads all the time. It wasn't as if it was an older sibling against a significantly younger sibling; we were all relatively the same size and had similar leverage. For us, it was just a matter of who was scrappier and cleverer at getting the other two in trouble. We slammed doors, knocked shoulders, and made silly, aggravating faces at one another. The only leverage anyone had was whether or not you were the favorite child that day! (Ha ha just kidding! Kind of...)
