In our forties, my identical twin sister looked years younger than me. The shock triggered a surprising second career.
I was born a twin and will always be one. That will never change. My twin sister Chrissy and I grew up sandwiched between an older and younger brother, dressed in matching dresses and sneakers. No one could tell us apart except that my mother dressed me in blue sneakers and Chrissy in red. It never made sense to us why we should wear different colors because we thought everyone should know who we were. Chrissy had a chipped tooth so we always had to show our smile – that got annoying after awhile.At high school graduation, we really followed our own divergent paths. She went to one college, I another. She pursued computers and a technology career, I worked with troubled families as a social worker. It turned out that although the world saw us as “identical”, we really were – as we always knew - very different, indeed.
In one area in particular, our differences really showed. Chrissy had always been the savvy, fashion-minded one who could sew beautiful clothes and apply makeup flawlessly. Growing up, she flipped through beauty magazines, studying the photos, imitating the styles and spending far more of her babysitting money on lotions and beauty balms. I envied the chic way she dressed and the way she made her appearance eye-catching. I always felt that when it came to beauty, Chris and I might look alike, but she nearly always outdid my simple style.
Our lives continued down different roads. Although we both married within a year of one another and had two children each during the same years, we lived in different states thousands of miles apart and saw each other only on holidays and during our annual summer family reunion. It was during one of those reunions that I got the shock that ultimately triggered my second career.
By the time we had turned 42, Chris had grown concerned about dark circles under her eyes and opted for a C02 laser treatment, a procedure which required several days bedrest, a follow-up facial gel and six weeks of recovery. To maintain the improvements in her appearance, Chris occasionally underwent microdermabrasion and glycolic peels as well as an IPL laser treatment to diminish rosecea on her neck. I, on the other hand, did practically nothing beyond wearing mascara and lipstick and getting a good haircut. It wasn’t that I didn’t take pride in how I looked, it was just that I wasn’t willing to go to the lengths that Chris was.
