Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Seeing Double

CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA
CHRIS BIEN/THE HOYA

Kimberly and Caroline Garity (COL ’12) always knew that they wanted to go to the same college. Dave Nulsen (SFS ’12), however, fought with his twin brother when he realized that Pete (COL ’12) too had fallen in love with Georgetown.

The Garitys and the Nulsens, along with other twins on the Hilltop, share a unique experience with its own joys and challenges.

Although Annie and Bonnie Yan (MSB ’14) are not identical twins, each is often mistaken for the other, perhaps because their clothes match every day. According to the twins, Annie picks both of their outfits for the day.

“I’m really bad at deciding stuff, even what to wear,” Bonnie says. “[Annie]’s my personal stylist.”

“It got to the point that Bonnie’s fashion sense was just horrendous,” Annie says. “So she decided to copy what I was wearing. I just buy two of everything. Buy one, get one free deals are just meant for us.”

At one point, the Yans even shared a Facebook account.

“We used to have an ‘AnnieBonnie Yan’ [profile that we] shared since eighth grade, but we split the summer before college because I thought people would think it was weird. But they found it anyway,” Annie says.

Although the Yan twins dress alike, live together, are both pre med and have the same major (finance and international Business), they weren’t always sure that they would or should attend the same college.

“I wouldn’t say we purposely tried to go to the same college or different college,” Annie says. But in the end, the pair applied to the same 19 colleges and received the same responses.

“When we went into the college admission process, I thought it would be fine if we didn’t go to the same school,” Bonnie says. “But after we came to Georgetown, I was so thankful that she was with me.”

But the pair has had their share of awkward encounters, too.

“In elementary school they put us in different classes,” Bonnie says. “In first grade, one of my classmates was talking to me and she went out to go to the bathroom, and apparently Annie had just come out of the bathroom. She came screaming back into the classroom saying ‘Bonnie! Bonnie, I saw your ghost outside!’ My teacher had to calm her down.”

More recently, during one late night in the Leavey Center, the Yan twins were hugged by a stranger who said he had never met Asian twins before.

Even their family members occasionally confuse them. “Our father has definitely punished the wrong twin,” Annie says.

Because the two lead such an intertwined life, they’re often criticized by those who don’t know them. “When we were in high school, people got offended that we dressed alike,” Bonnie says.

But Annie explains that their shared characteristics are an important part of their identities.

“I can’t try to be different from her because then I wouldn’t be myself,” she said. “People wanted us to be unique, but we share similar interests, so if I tried to be different, I wouldn’t be me.”

Kimberly and Caroline, identical twins from Los Angeles, have always been close. “I always say, ‘Yes, we are those twins,'” Caroline says.

They don’t remember ever discussing whether or not they’d separate after college.

“I think it was always assumed that we’d go to the same school,” Kimberly says.

The duo also decided to live together their freshman year.

“Freshman year we thought it would be nice to have a home away from home, together, since we were moving so far away,” Kimberly says. “We didn’t want to risk coming and each having a bad roommate.” The situation was especially convenient because Kimberly and Caroline share most of their clothes. They own only one of each item, though, so they never match.

“In high school we were known as the Garity Girls,” Caroline says. “But then we got here, and I just assumed that everybody knows I have a twin. But that wasn’t always the case.”

The pair often find themselves returning the smiles and greetings of people they don’t know, assuming that the person is a friend of their sister. Though the Garitys now walk around smiling at almost everyone, it took time for them to adjust to these frequent, awkward encounters.

“The worst is when it happens with professors,” Kimberly says. “The first time it happened, it was freshman year. It was my professor, but Caroline saw her and she didn’t even smile, because she didn’t know that person at all. Later on in the class I had mentioned I was a twin, and my professor said, ‘Oh, that’s why you were so rude to me.'”

Like the Yans, The Garity twins have met criticism for their decision to live together and pursue similar interests; both are co-captains of GU Irish Dancing, art history minors and studied abroad at Georgetown’s Villa Le Balze.

“Whenever I say I’m a twin, people always ask if my twin goes here, and I always say yes. And they immediately say, ‘You don’t live together, right?’ You get a lot of criticism for that,” Kimberly says.

The Garity twins said they can often predict these kinds of reactions.

“People always feel the need to state their opinion on whether or not they would want to be a twin,” Caroline says. “They’ll say, ‘Oh, I would hate that.’ Thanks.”

The Nulsens, fraternal twins from St. Louis Park, Minn., took the opposite approach. Not only did they live in separate dorms freshman year, but Dave stopped talking to Pete for a few days when his brother revealed that he intended to pick the same college.

“I was selfish enough in high school to think that Georgetown was my school,” Dave says.

But the anger didn’t last long. “A couple weeks later we realized there was a lot of positive that could come from this,” Pete says.

Once the brothers arrived on the Hilltop, they worked hard to forge separate identities, but slowly their lives merged. Now, they live in two connected houses.

“For me, it was a maturation process, realizing how stupid it was to try to get away from the person you’re closest with,” Dave says.

These “Minnesota Twins,” as they’re often jokingly called, like to make light of their twin status. Every year, they have a twin-themed party for their birthday where guests must match each other. “It’s funny because we’re not identical,” Dave says. “But people seem to really get into it.”

Todd Reese (MSB ’12) maintains that he and his brother, Zach (COL ’12), are more special than the other multiples on campus. Together with their sister Amanda, who studies at the University of Delaware, they’re a set of triplets.

“Twins think they’re as cool as us,” Todd says. “But they’re a lot more common.”

The Reese triplets intended to go to different colleges after attending the same school for 14 years. Todd chose Georgetown as his path to the business world and Zach found himself picking between schools and siblings.

“I knew that I wanted to go to medical school after college, so for me, it didn’t make sense to take out student loans for undergrad when I knew that I’d be taking out loans to pay for medical school,” Zach explains. “My mind was telling me the smart choice was to go to the University of Delaware, but my heart told me to come here.”

Two days before the May 1 decision deadline, Zach still hadn’t decided, so his brother stepped in.

“Todd said, ‘Zach, I can tell you want to go to Georgetown. If you go to Georgetown, I’ll help you pay your medical school loans,’ because he knew he wanted to go into banking,” Zach says. “And he is still standing by that statement.”

Though the brothers don’t live together, they see each other as much as their busy schedules allow. They try to cook dinner together on Fridays and to coordinate when they go to the gym. They have also sung together in the choir at 7:30 p.m. mass since the second week of their freshman year.

It took a while for Todd and Zach to get used to living without their sister, but all three have stayed close. Freshman year, when Zach and Amanda both took general chemistry, they would help each other with their homework over Skype.

It helps that their sister isn’t too far away at the University of Delaware. When Zach ran the Marine Corps marathon in October, Todd and Amanda trekked out to the 14th Street Bridge to cheer him on during the toughest miles.

One of the most common questions the Reese brothers are asked is about the existence of mythical twin senses.

“‘So if your brother is a couple miles away and he’s in pain or in danger, can you sense it?’ No! We don’t have telepathy!” Zach says. “I like to make the ESPN joke from Mean Girls,” Dave says. “Though less and less people get it.”

All the sets of twins emphasized their appreciation for the support of their siblings.

“I’m [Kimberly’s] biggest critic and her biggest fan,” Caroline says.

Todd feels the same way about Zach.

“It’s nice to always have family there,” he says. “There’s always someone there who’s willing to help.”

Of course, there are more practical perks to having a twin at Georgetown. “You don’t ever have to eat at Leo’s alone,” Annie says.

And with a twin, you always have a partner in crime. “It’s fun to always have someone to pregame and go out with,” Pete says.

Zach says he gets annoyed when people ask about his relationship with his siblings.

“When people ask if we’re close — of course we are,” he says. “It’s almost impossible not to be when you grow up with your two best friends.”

The twins all echoed that statement.

“If I’m really down, the first person I go to is Pete,” Dave says. “If I’m really up, the person I go to celebrate with is Pete. To me, that’s something I can’t put words to, how valuable that is.”

 

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