If you know me, then you know that I have a twin sister. Identical twin sister. Since Day 0, Mercedes has been my other half. We text all the time, send each other really weird messages that have no context to them and just share a bond that many siblings don't have. Unless you're a twin, you don't get how it feels to have someone who is literally you. While we're not exact matches, Mercedes and I share a lot in common. We both have a passion for theater, love playing video games and watching cartoons on TV or Netflix (if we can bum an account off a friend for a little bit). Yet, my sister does not attend Merrimack. She is currently at Emerson College in Boston, pursuing her dream of becoming a writer for TV and film. I am so proud of my sister, but it is still weird to be separated from her. Last year seemed easier than this year because I was so blinded by the glitz and glamour that is college life that I didn't have time to be missing her. Now that the dust has settled, I realize that it is weird to not have my No. 2 (though she'll say No. 1) by my side. This has lead to some interesting thoughts and situations.

1. Expecting someone to be able to finish my thoughts.

Not everyone is as capable as my sister is to know what I'm thinking and where that thinking is going. Sometimes when I talk, I will just ramble on and expect someone to stop me and be able to say, "Oh, you mean like ..." Most of the time I get weird looks and someone asking if I can explain where my train of thought was. Usually I can't explain it. Mercedes would do that for me.

2. Feeling like half of you is missing.

I mean this in the metaphorical and literal sense. My sister is a commuter rail and a few T-Stops away from me now. Before she was no farther than maybe the length of the hall in high school or just across the house. It feels weird knowing that she isn't able to come look at something I found online or sit next to me when I play video games and tell me how much of an idiot I am being. This causes a weird feeling of being incomplete. Sure, we do text each other at all times of the day and Skype almost every night, but there is something different about Skyping with someone and having them next to you. Whenever there are breaks or vacations, my sister and I are inseparable.

3. We no longer have the same inside jokes.
In high school, my sister and I had the same group of friends, by that I mean we had each other and two other people who might as well be siblings (but that is for another article). If something happened to Mercedes, I was usually there to see it happen. If I said the wrong word, Mercedes would never let me forget it. Now that we are so far apart, our lives are happening separately. Mercedes has film friends who now make jokes about asking if "it's OK if we cover your dorm in blood" and "should I ask my mom about getting arrested? For accuracy," instead of cracking jokes about weird teachers or what the cafeteria was serving for lunch that day. She'll try to explain to me what the joke is but with all inside jokes there is a certain level of you had to be there that makes them funny. Of course, I have my own inside jokes with my friends at Merrimack, but hearing my sister talk is like hearing her speak another language sometimes.

4. I'm proud of her, no matter what.
My sister is my rock. She is the one who showed me how to bake brownies from scratch and the one who would let me crawl into bed with her when I was having nightmares. Now my sister is taking the talent that I've seen all along and just sharing it with a different group of people. No matter the distance, she'll always be my twin. We might not be sharing the same house or the same meals, but we still have a bond that no one else has, and I think that is pretty damn awesome. Also, she has the same DNA as me which means she can take the fall for me if I ever get arrested. Not many people can do that.

Thanks, Cedes. For being the best identical twin I didn't ask for.