<2 zeni0ne Wits guided analysis ofthe following text 1 ‘The folowing article is taken fom the BuzzFeed News website, an Intemational news organization for readers looking for something otginal. tis featured in the "Reader" section, which focuses on culture, BuzzFeed News [REPORTING To YoU ABOUTUS GOTATIP? SUPPORTUS BUZZFEED.COM SECTIONS ¥ To Love Your Sister Is To Grieve Your Twin {ts impossible to explain what having a twins keto someone who asks, but | am going to try, © tomionwe = Cm on My father prayed for twins. This is fact my mother usually recites during birthdays, the impending new year, Thanksgiving, and other Increasingly rare moments when mother, father, brother, sister, and | {are all inthe same room inthe same time zone, He prayed for wins 5 andwe came, First Oami, shor for Okawadamioia (which means “God has made ‘me rch" n Yoruba), and then 25 minutes later, me, Tm, Okwatomilola (God is my suiciency’). My father prayed for twins, but the eds were In his favor. The Yoruba have the highest twinning rate inthe word 10 Science cannet account for ths strange phenomenon, Apparent ithas ‘something todo withthe skin ofthe yams we eat orth high amount ‘ofa certain chemical found i the beans the women traditionally soak and cook in pal ol. Whatever the reason, we're supposed to bring good luck and prosper to our fares, ‘My fest conscious memory involves my sister. We're siting on pottes in our itie bathroom 15 _in Surrey, England, babbing to eachother, trying to capture the tonal resonances of Yoruba and feling. Laughing ‘We are not identical, but forthe frst maybe 18 years of ou ves, we just say yes when people ask, because we might as well be. We have dark brown eyes that tun to slants when We smile. Mikcwhte baby teeth that gradually grow apart, widening and widening unt we () 20. demand braces and then | ose my retainer. My face i longer than here. am an Inch taller, But ‘ur voles are the same timbre. When we tlk onthe phone, aur mother can't tll us apart. We ‘say tings atthe same tie inthe same tone and then we laugh when that happens. We move ‘around alot, England, Gambia, Oto, two to three years in ezch place, and so we are natural ‘companions, drama kids who ham it up for the cameras, play elaborate games of make-believe, 25 singin schoo! musicals, ask obnoxious questions, enamored of our own cuteness. lt an overused trope, sure, twin as metaphor. Twins a represented in the popular culture ‘are usualy one-dimensional carbon copes ofeach other, devoid of all individual autonomy, of, if not tha, cartoonish opposites, the contradictions emphasized tothe extreme, But there's 2 subtlety about being a twin, about he myriad similarities and common interests encapsulated In 30 someone who isnot you35 40 45 50 55 ES ma-2013 “Are you guys gong to the same college?” Yes. But not on purpose... Iwill be the place Where the untwining start to happen and we won't even realize i First to go, Dams hai. Aer siting through years of cornrows, extensions, relaxers, and {quarterly sessions at he one black hareresser that is sort of near us, Dam just gives Up one. day and says, Tm cutin it permanently” She describes the shocked face of the barber a8 she tele him, “Shorter, shorter” | dont cut my hai. | keep it relaxed, and then when laziness takes over, declare mys ‘member ofthe thit-nave natural har movernent “The second thing to go, her faith. thad been on the fitz before in high school. Struggles with the usual questions — women, gay people, pain and suffering. There were shouting ‘matches when she reused to goto church. My mother was worried we'd become atheists in college, But once we gt ther, | go to a Bible study and | ike it. People are kind and thoughtful ‘Smart. Open. Ijin a campus ministry and convince Dam to jin too, and then one day she flames out in spectacular, extravagant fashion... Suddenly, Im going to church alone, campus ‘meetings alone, singing an the worship team alone. “Third to go, Dani hers, o France or 10 weeks. | am adamantly against. | don' tell her this. feign lack of interest. Oh really? Youre afraid you wont get your via? Oh, Mum and Dad ‘are worried about you going? Oh, they've relented. Oh you're going? OK. Bye. ‘She comes bact and things are diferent. So diferent that we can't quite understand i. We ‘argue often and virulent. I don’ remember what the arguments were about (surly something tiv), but | remember the tone vividly, the jabs, vicious jabs. Iwas misdirected anger, of ‘course, We were changing and we dint know how to cope wit the change. ‘After gracuatior, | moved to D.C. for anintemship and she stayed in Chicago, untl she decided to do an AmeriCorps program that took her across the country to Calfomia and I came ‘back to Chicago for afulsime jo. (One consequerce of moving so much is that you develop @ numbing acceptance of ‘change, and thus a tendency to avoid attachment. Growing apar, or becoming — a8 we now ‘ay to people who ask — sisters and not twins, was mosty horrfVng, but sometimes its a elit I means that my wor fear can't possibly devastate me as much as once could ‘Over this past Thanksgiving break, we watched the 2015 documentary Twinsters, about a ‘Los Angeles acess who discovers that she has an identical win sister ving in Paris. was on the verge of crying during the whole movie, but I could not bring myself to actualy cry, because: ‘Dami was dry-eyed and to admit that I was affected by this documentary would be to admit feeling, emotion, attachment, sentiment As passionate as both Dam and | are individually and with others, amongst ourselves, we are understated. thnk i's because the itensty of our love for each other's overvhelming Loving someone that much is embarrassing, ‘We lve in the same city now. Its a fortunate accident. Or maybe God ordained # That's hat my mother would say ‘We are a ‘we’ again. I’ strange but exci, If someone asks us if we are tins, we say yes atthe same time n the same tone and then we laugh. Its nice. My father prayed for twins. ‘And we came, es sot eeaiteae el onieede) irom ‘based in New York. 4 How isthe narrative svucture uted to exploce ideas about dent? ‘Turn over Tournez a page /Véase al dorso