March - Pflugerville Independent School District

10 Volume 6, Issue 6 LIFE, STYLE & ARTS March 7, 2013
Volume 6, Issue 6 LIFE,STYLE & ARTS March 7, 2013 11
Seeing Double
Balancing Act
Twins explain unique bond formed spending life side by side
SHelby Dickermansta
f reporter
Finding a girl with brown hair and
blue eyes in one period and then another
girl with the same features in the next
class gives off a sense of illusion that
can confuse many people into thinking
they’re seeing double when it’s actually
a set of twins.
“A couple days ago my friend saw Kayla
in the hallway and thought it was me,”
freshman Hannah Meadows said, “The
next day they got mad at me for not saying
hi when in fact it wasn’t even me.”
Meadows and her identical twin sister,
Kayla, may share the same face and parents,
but they have diverse personalities.
“People usually compare us by our
looks,” Kayla said, “but they don’t look
at our personalities, which is what counts
the most and what makes us different
from each other.”
The Meadows twins have had many
strange reoccurrences of twin
telepathy.
“One time my twin sister
fell off the monkey
bars,” Kayla
said,
“I was
somew
h e r e
else, but I felt it in my arm.”
After the event they were there for
each other no matter what had happened,
telepathic or not.
“The only thing I remember was that
she was there by my side right after I fell,”
Hannah said.
Along with their twin telepathy, Kayla
and Hannah share other hobbies and love
for things.
“We are both into softball, movies and
the Texas Rangers,” Kayla said.
In contrast, juniors John and James Sheport
are twins that don’t look anything
like one another. Features are one of the
ways to differentiate a set of fraternal
twins.
“His hair is different than mine,” James
said, “Mine is a lighter color and we have
different colored eyes.”
Having a member in the family with
the same age and hobbies as them is one
of the main reasons the Sheport twins
get along.
“We both listen to the same kind of
music,” James said, “We both skate,
BMX, swim.”
Although they may share the same
hobbies, these twins do not have the
same personalities.
“He’s more confronting
about stuff and I’m more
passive,” John said.
All siblings get into
arguments or disagreements.
Twins are no
exception.
“We fight at least
once a week,” Hannah
said.
However, no matter
what fights they go
through, conflict never
changes their feelings
towards the other.
“Being a twin is fun
and indescribable,” Kayla
said, “I don’t know
what I would do without my
twin sister.”
Staffer reflects on twindom
MANDY WHITED
life, style, & arts
For the past seventeen
and a half
years, basically every
time I’ve gone
out with my sister,
I’ve been asked the
same exact questions:
“Are you
two twins?” generally
followed by,
“What’s it like?”.
My answer to
the first question
is easy: yes. My
sister, Ginny, and
I are identical twins. However, when
it comes to answering everyone’s second
question, I’m at a loss. I’ve never
not been a twin, so I have absolutely no
idea what it would be like to outsiders.
I assume having a twin is exactly like
having an older or younger sibling who
is simply in the same grade. There are
positives to having a twin, of course;
always having someone the same age
to play with growing up, having a builtin
movie buddy. We have fairly similar
tastes in books, movies and television,
so we usually have an easy time occupying
our time.
However, because we are twins, Gin-
ny and I are always in the same grade,
and occasionally in the same classes.
Because of this, we have had roughly
the same group of friends and extracurriculars.
Sometimes it gets to be way
too much- we see each other at home,
school and after school. After almost
eighteen years, it’s easy to get sick of
one another.
As a twin, it can be difficult to develop
a personal identity when someone
else is basically walking around in
your body. We’re always compared to
one another, and it feels like we’re always
competing with one another, it a
way I doubt most siblings do. We have
to find a good balance with each other.
Sometimes, she will go out and I’ll stay
at home for some much needed alone
time. Most nights, Ginny will stay in her
room and I’ll stay in mine. We used to
fight on a regular basis, but the frequency
of our disagreements has decresed as
we’ve grown older and branched out to
other activities. Ginny does band, I’m in
Newspaper, and we both participate in
Theatre. We still see each other (it’s literally
impossible to avoid, but the past
few years we’ve been able to find a happy
medium between being twin sisters
and being individuals.
9
12
6
3
A day in the
life of dancer
Hope Tate
Staying fit, completing schoolwork in a
timely manner, memorizing choreography,
performing on stage and making time
for some relaxation while simultaneously
keeping their GPa as high as they possibly
can are all challenges for a high school
dancer. Their lives can be grueling both
physically and mentally, but by sticking to
a schedule, the workload becomes more
achievable. With so much to do daily, Tate
allots every activity to a certain amount
of time and work to make sure she stays
on track.
7:00 AM - Wake up
8:00 AM - Run 1.5 Miles
8:30-10:30 AM - Practice
4:15 PM - School
5:30-8:30 PM - Dance
9:00 PM - Go Home
9:30-11:30 PM - Free Time
Student works to stay en pointe with school and dance
rini SinHa editor-in-chief
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
As junior Hope Tate walks down the hallways,
this beat rings in her head. She uses it so often,
that it has become the rhythm her heart beats to.
Tate started dancing at age three, and fourteen
years later, her passion for dance continues to
grow.
“Dance is part of what defines me now,” Tate
said. “I love it even when I don’t want to go or
when I’m exhausted.”
In addition to being
the captain of the Silver
Dancers, Tate also dances
at Metamorphosis Dance
Academy and in their
dance company called
Austin Metamorphosis Dance Ensemble.
Although dance plays a huge role in her
life today, Tate hasn’t always wanted to
go into it. Her first choice was something
else entirely.
“I wanted to take gymnastics, but I can’t roll to save my life,”
Tate said. “Ballet seemed more suited for little me.”
Some of her favorite styles of dance are ballet, contemporary
and jazz and she averages four hours of dance daily. Although
she gives so much time to it, Tate makes sure she stays on top
of her schoolwork as well.
“I do a lot of work on the nights I have no dance: Mondays,
Thursdays, and Fridays,” Tate said. “Sometimes during breaks
at my studio I can finish an essay or pre-cal homework.”
Whenever things get tough for her, Tate remembers how
much she values dance by reflecting on her biggest inspiration,
Misty Copeland. Copeland is a dancer at the American Ballet
Theater in New York City.
“She started dancing when she was 13, and has a lot going
against her has a ballet dancer - she doesn’t have a typical
ballerina body and she’s short,” Tate said. ”I really relate to
that and it makes me more confident that I can make it too.”
Along with balancing all her extracurriculars and schoolwork,
Tate has a myriad of responsibilities.
“For Silver Dancers, I have to be a really good example at all
times. Good behavior, clean social
“Dance has taught me discipline
and a way to express myself. It
has changed the way I hold and
present myself to everyone.”
--Hope Tate
networks, good grades,” Tate said.
“For the company, I have to take
two ballet classes and something not
ballet every week, and there are rehearsals
every Saturday and Sunday.”
Dancing has taught Tate many
important life lessons and given her
an outlet.
“Dance has taught me discipline
and a way to express myself,” Tate
said. “It has changed the way I hold and present myself to
everyone.”
Although Tate isn’t sure of where she wants to go to college,
she knows dance will be a constant in her life and she will
manage to efficiently balance it into her future.
“I haven’t decided whether or not I want to major in Dance,
but I want to dance throughout college,” Tate said. “I want to
be a commercial dancer - concert tours, music videos, performances.”
Tate transitions to challenging levels of dance through the years
7 years old...10 years old...
13 years old... 16 years old...
Photos courtesy of Hope Tate & bob roberts Photography