Author Spotlight
Celia Condon
The second she decided she was going to Texas Christian University, senior Ellie Peters grabbed her phone to see how long flights were from Forth Worth to Denver.
Thank goodness, a nonstop always available.
Ellie no longer had to be as nervous about saying goodbye to her twin sister, senior Ava Peters, when it came time to move off to college in the fall.
From Saturday night hangouts to coaching a soccer team together, the twins have spent the majority of the past 18 years together, making the process of moving off to college a little different than that of just a normal set of siblings.
“We’ve only been apart from each other maybe twice,” Ellie said. “And it was for like four days, one was when she went to Dallas, and the other was when I went to TCU a second time. So it’s definitely going to be hard.”
When it comes to major things, like being in two different states, the girls know that they’ll have a bit of adjusting to do. But the real differences and hard parts will come in the day-to-day activities, according to the twins.
“I’m going to need to get myself a planner as I’m no longer gonna have my human planner,” Ava said.
When it comes to staying on top of appointments, homework and events, Ellie is always there to remind Ava.
“I kind of keep her more in order and she like loosens me up more… I usually try to bring her up when she’s lazy. Being like, ‘Come on, we need to do this.’ But then when I’m uptight, she’ll bring me down,” Ava said.
Ellie and Ava plan to FaceTime at least once a day to keep each other balanced as they always do at home.
For senior twins Jake and Eli Fay, they knew that their college decisions wouldn’t have anything to do with one another. If they both ended up wanting to go to the same school, good. But if they ended up going separate ways, that would also be good.
However, when the two did decide on different schools, it was a relief that neither would be too far. With only a three hour road trip in between, Eli will be off to Creighton University in Nebraska, and Jake to Kansas State University in Manhattan.
“We both tried to keep in mind that whatever our [college] decision would be, we would decide it without letting it affect each other at all,” Eli said. “It will be good to have a chance to kind of become my own person.”
The identical brothers have a similar story to that of the Peters girls, where being apart will be a completely new experience.
“I don’t really know what the hardest part about it will be yet because there hasn’t really been a time in our lives where we’ve been separated for this long,” Jake said. “Even though we kind of have a love-hate relationship, I have to admit I’ll miss him a little bit.”
While the two will miss each other for obvious reasons, Jake is looking forward to no longer being called ‘Eli’ at least a few times a week.
Seniors Hope and Hanna Robinett will be another set of twins spanning different states throughout college and taking significant time apart for the first time in their lives.
“I don’t know how I won’t have my best friend with me all the time,” Hanna said. “We just do everything together and not having someone to do everything with is going to be a big change and a lot different from what we’re doing now.”
Hanna is headed to University of Tulsa in the fall to play golf, something that won’t change much about her everyday activities. But saying goodbye to her twin sister, senior Hope Robinett, is what will make leaving KC the hardest. And Hope will be facing the same struggle when she leaves for Texas Christian University.
“She’s been my built-in best friend for 18 years,” Hope said. “Having to find like a ‘replacement’ is what will be most hard. I feel like all of a sudden I’ll feel like, ‘Oh my gosh, what happened? Where did she go?’”
Besides the emotional aspect of leaving each other, the girls have finally had a chance to put thought into what it will be like to live without a mirror image of themselves walking around the same town as them all the time.
“The thing that’s going to be the most different is waking up in the morning and not having to make sure that I’m [not] wearing the same thing as Hanna,” Hope said. “It actually happens so much.”
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