More on twins...

As I said before, we were very identical identical twins. I've heard that in some Latin American hospitals they piece the baby girls ears there in the hospital. While my mom is half Hispanic, they chose to pierce our ears very early on for an increased ability to tell us apart, particularly in instances such as bathtime. I was given gold heart earrings and Amber stars.



They also had a color-code strategy which was dressing me in blue and Amber in pink. Funny, to this day I have a hard time wearing pink. My roommate in college wanted to pink-me-up and bought me a pepto-bismol colored turtleneck. I put it on and felt very anxious and upset and I felt awful in it. I wasn't sure if it was because it was pink or because I associated it with diarrhea (did I just say diarrhea? sorry, I try to avoid that word.) Amber has no problem wearing pink. I wonder if I continue to subconsciously feel that it isn't my color to wear.

I should have reminded people of these strategies, as well as the tips I shared with previously when they questioned our identities. We were constantly asked with a tone of terror, "What if you were mixed up at birth and you were really Amber and she was really Erin?" For some reason this possibility was a horribly awful thought to many of those around me. For us, we realized (unlike others who don't seem to understand twin identities--more on that later) that we were our own person regardless of what we called. I would respond, "Well, I guess I am Erin now."



I don't think we were mixed up at birth. To this day I am amazed at my parents' ability to tell us apart. It is very strange to look of pictures of us and not be able to always correctly identify myself. But my parents always know. I continually am grateful that they were able to see our identities and treat us as individuals. My mom always made us our own birthday cakes which was a simple but very strong way of saying we each mattered.