Last year, I was walking quickly from the PAC to the Lex because I was starving. I hadn’t slept well so I looked dead enough to walk onto the set of The Walking Dead, but I tried hiding my face under a baseball cap.
“Hey, Davis!” I heard someone yell. But I didn’t turn around.
The fact is, I am not Davis. I am his sister. And the next terrible fact is that last year was not the first time I had been mistaken for my 6’2, 100-something pound brother who also attended Union. It doesn’t help that Davis and I drive the same truck (although, mine is black, so it is better), have matching hoodies and are identical, save for my long hair. But being at Union with Davis was actually the coolest thing ever.
We would work out together every night, play video games, and we usually ate breakfast at his place on Friday mornings before going to chapel. I also had a place to do (and leave) my laundry. Now that he is gone, I find working out isn’t quite as fun, he’s even better at Mario Kart online and my towels are never folded as nicely as he folded them.
I wondered if other kids at Union felt the same way about attending school with their siblings. This is the first year I’ve been away from Davis since we’ve been in school together since I was in first grade, and the separation anxiety is real.
Sophomores Daniel Patterson and Alyssa Hartig also have siblings at Union—both sisters who are seniors.
“I don’t see my sister at all this year but last year I did,” Patterson said. “We went to chapel and got lunch together. We hung out. We do activities on campus together [and] go to games together. I get all of my sister’s notes for a class she took, so I don’t have to take notes. I have them all printed off. And she gives info on the best classes to take.”
“People confuse us sometimes,” said Hartig. “Someone said hey to me thinking I was Hannah. People still think we are twins all the time.”
I asked if they had had any classes with their siblings, but neither one of them had. They did say that their sisters offered both of them advice on which core classes to take.
Patterson and Hartig are both from Jackson and live at home with their siblings.
“Sometimes I see Hannah more on campus than at home,” said Hartig.
I asked if it was fun being at the same school once again after attending high school together as well.
“I can crash Faith’s lunch dates and all that,” Patterson said. “It’s fun.”
