Sisters Evan and Lilah Platz have plenty of differences — Type A personality vs. Type B, two classes this semester vs. nine and buying new clothes vs. thrifting.
“I feel like I’ve picked up on a lot of what she does [over the years],” Lilah said. “And I would say we’re pretty similar [now]. The other day, my mom sent us a photo that was taken of both of us, and we’re doing the same head tilt, same smile, same everything.”
This year, their normal-sister bickering, movie nights, before-school car rides, competitive volleyball games near their childhood neighborhood Lake of the Forest and trips to the dog park will be coming to an end. The pair will be going to different places across the world.
This year, the sisters will be graduating high school together — walking across the stage one after the other.
After May 20, Evan will be going to Semester at Sea — a multi-country study abroad experience — in the fall to study business and marketing while living on a ship. Lilah will be attending Colorado State University, majoring in clinical psychology.
The two have always been one grade apart, this year Lilah a junior and Evan a senior. But since Lilah has chosen to graduate one year early, they’ll both be graduating this year as part of the Class of 2025.
“I will call her every week,” Lilah said. “She will be forced to talk to me. Any chance she’ll answer, I’ll take it. She’s not coming back [for four months], but I didn’t process that [yet].”
For the past two summers, Evan has participated in Action Quest, a three-week sailing camp in the summer, in preparation for Semester at Sea. This, combined with the sisters’ countless journeys from home and riding the family’s Airstream — a RV-like travelling vehicle — to the beach, has contributed to Evan’s love for the ocean and traveling.
Evan always knew she didn’t want to stay in Kansas for college. A future that would either mean spending at least $200,000 on out-of-state college tuition or choosing an alternative.
“I eventually was like, [going to college] is just not for me,” Evan said. “I don’t want to go into debt. I inherited some money from my grandma, and I decided to put that towards Semester at Sea so I can get some classes, traveling, new connections and not commit to four years of a ton of money.”
Instead of spending draining hours stuck inside a campus building, Evan will be traveling to places such as Morocco or Spain during the four months of Semester at Sea.
“I think it’s perfect for her,” Lilah said. “She did summer camps where she would go sailing, she loves the ocean, she loves traveling. She will thrive. I personally think she would thrive in any place she gets put.”
At the beginning of this year, Lilah made the decision to finish high school early. It just wasn’t for her and she wanted to show Evan that she was capable of graduating early. Once she spoke with her mom and researched early-graduation possibilities, she took off with a new high school plan.
“I knew Evan was gonna be the one I needed to talk to first because I knew it was her [graduation] year,” Lilah said. “I didn’t want to take that from her. [I told her] I would want you to know the graduation party would be yours. It will be about you. I will just be there with you.”
She approached Evan first to discuss the possibility of her graduating the same year.
“[Her graduating is] great, and I think it was definitely unexpected,” Evan said. “She’s stepping back from having a grad party or anything like that. She didn’t want to step on my toes about that kind of stuff.”
After speaking with her school counselor, Lilah signed up to complete two extra online classes required for all early graduates in order to complete her credit hours.
She applied to go to Colorado State University to study clinical psychology and was accepted.
“I felt like [Evan] was my main support,” Lilah said. “And really what pushed me to [graduate early] because she’s always been the one that I listened to even if she doesn’t know it.”
During graduation, Lilah will be dressed in the columbian blue graduation cap and gown — twinning with her sister one last time.
Since Evan’s name is first alphabetically, she’ll walk across the stage first — followed by Lilah, just as Evan started school first, followed by Lilah.
“I’m hoping we’ll still do [movies, arcade and the dog park in the future],” Shelly said. “And my plan is if they both end up in different parts of the world, I’m just planning to travel, and we’ll do all those things wherever they live.”