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Sophie Alarcon: The Comfort in Being a Sock

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Sophie Alarcon reflects on what it’s like to navigate the world as one half of a pair.

In some ways I see myself as a sock. They are a pair. One part of what is vitally two. That is what life feels like when you are a twin. You can have one, but you need the other to be complete. The concept of being a twin is both a blessing and a curse that I have grappled with for the entirety of my life. Comparison is all I’ve known: who is better at math or at soccer, who is funnier or nicer, who this, who that. But no. We are different individuals. We are our own people, with our own personalities, separate identities, different strengths, different weaknesses. And this is what I have spent my entire life subconsciously trying to prove.

College changed my perspective on this in a way that was extremely humbling. Tackling a new city, having been raised in a safe little bubble of a city, loneliness overtook me. I didn’t realize how normal it felt to have my twin sister with me on an everyday basis, experiencing all of life alongside me. I previously believed that independence had never truly been an issue for me, but I now begin to wonder if that independence was not raw and true independence. It was independence with the assistance of my other half. In a way it does feel like cheating at life. Having physical, emotional, moral support just built into each and every day. An advantage I now wish more people could experience. So despite grappling with my identity for the entirety of my life, trying to understand how to be me, the answer is simple. A twin is who I am. My twin sister is my other half, she has shaped who I am, who I am going to be, and who I am ultimately meant to be. Being a twin is more of a blessing than it is a curse.

With a Perspective, I’m Sophie Alarcon.

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Sophie Alarcon is a psychology student in San Francisco, from Orange County, California.

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