While the sophomore twins Anna and Bryn Sapp have become accustomed to answering to each other’s names, sports have given them each something unique past their similar appearance. 

“You have teachers call you the wrong name,” Anna said. “If a teacher or someone says ‘Bryn,’ I go by ‘Bryn.’ I’m just like, ‘yeah.'”

“You just get used to it,” Bryn interjected. “I answer to Anna. It’s weird.”

Like the girls mentioned, this isn’t an uncommon occurrence for them, and they have become used to nearly being the same person. 

“We’re just similar,” Anna said. “We look alike. We dress the same. We’re around each other a lot, so I guess people just think of us as the same. It’s more of just the same person. Half the time, they don’t know who’s who.”

The girls have been struggling with this “who’s who” for as long as they can remember, and they even attempted to switch in first grade; however, the April fool’s joke was a failure.

Since this early age, however, the girls have been working to identify themselves as individuals, and recently, they seem to have begun to do just that.

“I think it was more fifth and sixth grade.” Bryn interjects. 

“Yeah,” Anna continued. “because she went to Goodwillie and I went to Central Woodlands, so it was very different, and we just had different interests.”

This shift in schools and interests kickstarted two new paths for the girls to take. Anna chose to pursue volleyball and tennis and end figure skating, which Bryn still continues. These sports represent not only the girls’ interests but also their personalities. 

“Well, I guess Anna is more. . . ” Bryn began.

“Well, I’m outgoing,” Anna said. “I guess it kind of goes along with what we do outside of school too, like volleyball.” 

Anna decided to quit figure skating to move to a more team-oriented sport with less intense coaching, whereas Bryn liked the intensity. 

“I figure skated until a few years ago,” Anna said. “It was such a different sport than what I’m used to. The coaches can be kind of mean, and it’s not like a team aspect. You can’t be as social.”

As the sisters described, this suits their personalities pretty well. Bryn is able to utilize her more quiet, reserved personality while the team aspect of volleyball allows Anna to be more outgoing. 

“Bryns a little bit more quiet,” Anna explained, “kind of awkward.” 

“Awkward?” Bryn questioned. 

Pointing at her sister’s stance, Anna continued.

“Yeah exactly, awkward,” Anna said. 

Though the girls’ extracurricular schedules do vary, their classes are similar as well as their friends, increasing the time they spend together. And while they are grateful for each other’s constant friendship, they agree it does get annoying.

“We used to have like opposite friends because she went to a different school,” Anna said, “but now, we kind of share friend groups. Like, one of us will make a friend, and then they just become friends with the other.” 

However, when they don’t have friends over, they always have each other, which seems to be the twins’ greatest blessing and greatest curse.  

On the positive side, it saves their mom lots of time in the car. 

“She’s always there to hang out with. You don’t have to go make your mom take you somewhere to hang out with friends,” Bryn said. “She’s always there.”

This has its downsides, nonetheless, and finding a moment alone for these girls can be challenging. 

As discussed, each other’s constant acquaintance serves as the girls’ favorite and least favorite aspect of being a twin. It seems they know nearly too much about one another. 

“Always being around each other is a lot,” Bryn continued. “Sometimes we know too much about each other.”

“The worst part about being a twin is her always being there,” Bryn said. “It’s kind of like-”

“It’s the best, and it’s the worst,” the girls said in unison.