Editors’ Note: The author himself is a twin.

Dressed casually and engaged in his daily routine, he walks across the hallway on his way to class. While his mind focuses on his academic life, a teacher hands him a graded paper. Initially perplexed, he halts. He would typically remember a paper he wrote in the recent past. Then teacher says, “…Tom.” Standing in the crowded hallway, he takes his twin brother’s assignments so as not to offend her.

This is a reality for senior Nate Besold. One of the sixteen twins in the Parker upper school with both at Parker, he is often confused with his brother Tom.

“We both look very, very similar,” Besold said. “I don’t really blame people for mistaking us.”

The common misconception regarding the indistinguishability of all twins may stem from popular culture. Twins are portrayed as exceptionally alike in notable films such as “The Shining” in which a set of identical female twins speak the following creepy command in unison: “Come play with us.”

In addition, many films with twins often revolve around one or both of the twins’ assuming their twin’s identity. Such films include “The Parent Trap” and “A Stolen Life.”

Television also provides shows that include twins, such as “Sister, Sister,” “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody,” and “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Literature too is full of works centered around the lives of identical twins dating back to William Shakespeare’s “A Comedy of Errors” and forward to “Lottie and Lisa,” “Wise Children,” and “The Third Twin.”

Although the common misconception that twins are totally alike may in part stem from popular culture, one thing is clear: many twins hear it a lot.

“What happens to Nate has happened so many times to me,” freshman twin Allan Bennett said, “that I don’t pay attention to it as much.”

Bennett may not pay attention to the mistakes that other people make pertaining to his relationship with his identical twin Alex, but he does pay attention to the way Parker handles twins.

“I think that especially when you’re growing up,” Bennett said, “since they’re apparently with you every step of the way, you probably have kind of have a natural sense to rely on them.”

If and when twins in the Parker Upper School go to college, they will likely be forced to thrive independently.

“I think it will be very beneficial,” senior twin Katrina Holceker said. “I think it will be really good to branch out, get our own friends, and just be alone for a bit.”

Sophomore Sally Caplan has a different relationship with her fraternal twin brother—Gus—than Holceker does with her sister Elena. “Since we still have different lives,” Caplan said, “and since we don’t see each other a lot during the day, I feel like it won’t be that different.”

Freshman Lauryn Rauschenberger is another fraternal twin. “My relationship with Noah is probably mostly on the weekends,” Rauschenberger said. “During the week we mostly do our own thing.”

Rauschenberger also thinks about what college will mean for them. “I won’t be known as a ‘twin.’ It depends how far away we go to college,” she said. “Because I know right now we’re set on places that are really far away. He wants to go to Notre Dame and I want to go somewhere in California.”

Although the Rauschenberger twins are only freshmen, they have already considered their separation at college. Some older upper school twins on the other hand, though closer to experiencing that likely separation, have not considered it yet.

“I don’t really know yet,” Besold said. “We’re probably not going to go to college together, but it’ll be interesting to see.”