Twin’s eye view

Double Take offers a twin perspective on issues that concern the youth of today — from fashion to music, from romance to peer pressure, and a whole host of other topics from two differing points of view.

Columnists Nicole and Camille Tantoco are fraternal twins who may appear to be a mirror image of each other physically, but who are, in many ways, polar opposites in their views on love, life and lifestyles.

The daughters of Rustan’s Supercenters Inc. dynamos Donnie and Crickette Tantoco, Nicole and Camille were born on September 8, the birthday of the Virgin Mary. Both are college freshmen, with Nicole at the Ateneo de Manila University and Camille at the University of Asia and the Pacific. Nicole and Camille were contributors to Winx magazine, a popular monthly geared towards “tweens.”

Nicole is a poet at heart. She has  published a collection of poetry. She loves to read, write and play the piano and saxophone. She hates uncomfortable shoes, getting all dressed up and made up. This English major has a very strong social conscience.

Camille is often the belle of the ball at a gathering. She is outgoing, fun-loving, and gregarious. She loves to sing, shop, paint and rollerblade. She hates curfews and rules. She is sassy and street-smart. 

Both Nicole and Camille are loving every minute of campus life as freshmen college students. They both admit to being messy and disorganized at times.They both consider themselves free spirits. 

For their first column, Double Take tackles the issue of what it’s like to be a twin… from two points of view, of course.

Growing up, I’ve always been so aware of my twin-ness. I was extremely proud to be a twin. It was what made me special. When I was in preschool, I wouldn’t hang out with other kids. I’d just follow my sister anywhere and everywhere she’d go. I was obsessed with Mary-Kate and Ashley (the Olsen twins), and Elizabeth and Jessica (the Sweet Valley twins). Camille and I would collect all their books and act the scenes out. It’s fun having a twin.

When we were younger, we were playing all the time. We loved pretend games especially. We’d pretend to be Greek gods or pirates or little detectives. I didn’t want or need anybody else in the world. I even insisted that I be called Camille, too. I didn’t see us as different from each other but as one package deal.

Maybe that wasn’t healthy. When we started school, the first thing they did was separate us from each other. Camille was in section A and I was in section B. I remember coming home after the first week and not recognizing my sister. I was bothered that she’d been places and seen people I hadn’t heard about. The stories she told were different from mine. I couldn’t connect my own version of my twin sister with this new twin sister who now seemed so worldly — distressingly so — after being away from me.

There I was, my world crashing down on me and she seemed to have no problems at all. I felt betrayed by her at first but in the end I wanted to be as strong as her. Suddenly my eyes were opened to a whole array of kids to make friends with, lessons to learn and experiences to be had that I could share with my sister later on. I found that our differences made us grow closer, not apart. Now I revel in how we’re different. She coaches me on how to dress for school and I lend her money and advise her against impulse buys.

Because of her I learned to appreciate Laguna Beach and American Idol and she has a spectacular talent for giving you the impression that she’s read every book worth talking about — as long as it’s something I’ve read, too. She’s not afraid of anything and I’m her careful conscience. I’m there to think of creative ways to get revenge on a jerk when someone breaks her heart and she forces me out of bed during my “low” weeks when I don’t want to see anybody. I might not ever own a piece of clothing of my own and I may always have to share a room or have to suffer from awkward scrutiny or biting comparisons; but my sister is so amazing, and so lovably weird and so strong that I’m proud to be her twin!

She makes it all worth it.

Camille Tantoco - I always knew I was a twin from the time that I started actually having a memory of the things around me. Inevitably, my twin became my best friend so I did not really need anyone else. Together, we would go on our own crazy adventures that usually led to us ending up inside the dishwasher or cutting all of each other’s hair.

My parents even told me that, through listening to the baby monitor, they discovered that we had our own language! No wonder it took us so long to learn how to talk.

When I look back, I find it cute how our mom would always dress us in matching or identical outfits especially during Halloween. In my whole existence I’ve hardly been without her by my side, since we’ve been roommates since the womb. I do everything with my twin, from celebrating our birthday together, meeting new people, going to grade school and high school.

But now it’s time for college and we’re off to different schools for the first time in our lives. Don’t get me wrong, though: I am not attached to my twin. We tend to clash sometimes, possibly because we share the same face but not the same personality. My sister is the more studious, outrageous, driven type while I’m just the hopeless romantic always looking for love. I also like dressing up more so I find it very unfair that I get stopped by my school guard for violating the dress code almost every day while my twin (Nicole) is in her school dressed in comfy jeans and a T-shirt and not taking advantage of the liberalism of her college. We actually share clothes so I end up wearing her comfy, understated apparel and she ends up wearing my girlier, flashier outfits to our respective universities.

My twin spends hours on the computer writing novels, poems and short stories galore while I use my Internet time to chat and update my Multiply. I do not see us as another one of those twin clichés, such as the famous Mary-Kate and Ashley or Zack and Cody. People are amazed to find that I have a twin, and I guess that makes me special, in a way. You could say, “So what, dizygotic beings are common nowadays!” I say God was happy to make a brilliant masterpiece, so he made another one just like it.