According to the people on my Instagram stream, National Siblings Day was last Sunday. What this means, I don’t know. Apparently, we need set aside a day to realize that having siblings should be considered a blessing and not a curse. That being said, I missed posting a cliché photo of my brother and I on Sunday, which is a shame because I have a lot of them, and because as far as siblings go, we are kind of unique. We are identical (monozygotic) twins who go to the same college, and thus get a lot of strange looks, as people try to figure out which twin they know, and a lot of absurd questions. I will use this article as my salute to National Siblings Day and as a chance to educate you lonely plebeians, who spent nine months of solitary confinement in a womb, on what it is like to be a twin.

The first thing I want to talk about is probably the biggest con of being a twin. The ridiculous questions and jokes that any twins get constantly and that have been queried by kindergarten classmates and professional coworkers alike. I don’t mind people poking fun at me for being a twin, but when you hear the same jokes your whole life, it starts to get a tad bit annoying. The most annoying joke by far is the intentional mix up.

“Hey (insert name of twin brother)! What’s up (twin’s name)?” deliberately yelled across the room.

Whenever the amateur comedian of the week decides to use this gem to get a cheap chuckle, they are falling into a joke every twin has heard since they became conscious beings (and probably even before that). I have no problem whatsoever if someone calls me my brother’s name by mistake or greets me, thinking I am him. It's entirely understandable and happens all the time (especially at school). Usually, I just return the greeting, and if time allows, I’ll politely correct them. It is just hearing the same deliberate joke for 21 or so years that gets kind of old. There is a smattering of other jokes and silly questions every twin gets way too much. Since they usually are only one time occurrences, I will quickly glance over them.

1. If I pinch you will he feel it? (No.)

2. Do you ever switch classes? (Every April 1, until I got a 13 percent on a surprise test in one of my brother’s classes.)

3. Can you read his mind? (Yes, but only because I am actually a psychic and no one’s thoughts are safe around me. In actuality, no)

4. Do you play tricks on girls? (Not intentionally, but there have been a few funny, mostly unintentional, mishaps.)

5. Wow, it must be crazy to have two of you walking around! What’s it like to be a twin? Do you two get along?

I’m glad you asked. Being a twin is not like constantly hanging out with a copy of yourself, as many believe. Its more like constantly hanging out with your best friend, who is identical in DNA and similar in life experiences. Because of this, there is not a lot that we disagree on. Same general music taste, same general sense of humor, different mannerisms and different personalities. You still get a slight older/younger sibling dynamic. As the older twin, I like to think I am the more easy going and less annoying of the two, but these observations are only just based on 21 years of close observations. Being an identical twin usually means constantly competing – overtly and subliminally – with your God-given clone over everything from sports, to friends, to best hair. This stems from living a life based off being constantly compared to one another by friends, strangers and each other. While this may seem like a bit of a hassle to constantly worry about, it is actually an excellent driving factor in school, sports, girls and life in general. The extra drive of constantly being amongst cohort leads to as much folly as excellence, though.

A consequence of being an identical twin is the amount of stupid shenanigans that results from spending too much time together. Just imagine, if you and your best friend lived together, in the same house and room, for your entire lives. Not all of your shared ideas will be necessarily wise ones and not all of your plans are going to go off without a hitch. This is why my family averages at least one trip to the ER a year. If it's not me or my brother going, we are usually involved in it in some way. Twins tend to cause a lot of collateral damage. I spent 10 days in the hospital after running through a window during a game of cops and robbers, my brother has a scar from that time he tried to slow his skateboard down with his face, we’ve broken God knows how many of my sister’s bones (by accident), my dad got 16 stitches after we all got in a bar fight together (someone else started it with us) and almost every lamp in my parents house is either strategically placed away from my our living space or held together by duct tape. I have more scars than anyone I know; my brother is not far behind. None of my scars are from malicious events, more just a mix of boredom and bad decision making, coupled with the fact that we twins usually tend to agree on plots that are equal parts entertaining and dangerous. Most of our injuries come from these tomfooleries gone wrong, but from time to time, we do try to hurt each other.

It's been a while since we have had a good fight, probably because we don’t live together anymore, which means we have less of a chance to get on each other’s nerves. I can’t speak for all twins, but from what I can tell, most male twin fights go like this. You have about a week of build up, tensions rise and usually one of the twins is fueling the fire, constantly annoying and jabbing at the other one in various ways (usually the younger one, my brother in our case). Then we get to the day of the fight, both know we are equally pissed at each other, but don’t know why, and are just looking for the spark to ignite the powder keg. Something really petty causes the powder keg to explode. More fights have been started over the damn TV remote in my house than anything else. Names get called, blows get thrown, lamps get broken (accidentally) and all as quietly as possible. Because, for some reason, a mother of twins instinctively knows when they are about to start scrapping, and the less noise you make, the more punches you get in before Mom comes in like a bat out of hell. There is a solid eight to 12 minutes of cooling off away from each other, and then we inspect the damage, compliment any good punches/dodges and go back to watching TV, relieved of all built up anger we had harbored not 15 minutes before. Repeat cycle every three months or so.

Overall, being a twin is a very enjoyable and rewarding experience. I’m sad most of you will never get a chance to see what its like. I have tried my best to explain some of the FAQ’s that most of you people characterized by a lonely zygote have and explain some of the more peculiar aspects of twin life. The last thing I want to talk about is something I will call the paradox of uniqueness. As a twin, you are stuck in between a strange limbo of being extremely unique (How many people can say they have a carbon copy of themselves in this world?) and extremely un-unique. (You have a carbon copy of yourself in this world!) No matter what you do, you will be constantly compared and likened to this completely different person. In reality, the identicalness ends at the skin (and maybe the voice). Those who know my brother and I, personally, have no problem telling us apart, based solely on how we carry ourselves, or beliefs and desires. A lot of a twin’s time is spent trying to sculpt your own image in order to distance yourself from your twin, for the sake of you and your peers (confusing people is only fun on April Fool’s day). Of course, this is not the only goal for a twin. (If it was, we would have chosen schools based on this opinion, not based on sports, money and atmosphere. Go Hendrix!) It plays a small part in everything you do. Even though it may, at times, be a struggle, it is also important to remember: Imitation is the highest form of flattery. So thanks for the compliment, God, you sly fox.