Teenage Twins

I’ve just spent 72-hours with my twin 13 year old granddaughters. It was both a delightful experience and an eye-opener into the youth culture of today.

Besides confirming what I already knew that twins are no more alike than beans and corn, these two siblings are smiling spirits of the same womb, but that’s where the similarity ends, except both are beautiful teen-age girls. Really! Not Grandfather really, but really.

One delightful child is a touch laconic, but not always. She tends to hold things in, but when she lets loose she is as vibrant as a rainbow and as comfortable as a teddy bear. She goes about her day with reasonable analysis, and technological savvy and she loves the outdoors and is a sports fanatic.

We all went on a canoe and kayaking trip and she handled the canoe like a pro. It was something she learned at summer camp.

Over heard on the canoe trip: Quote: Twin one, "Please help me with the canoe. Pick it up by the gunnels." Twin two, " I would if knew what they were."

Twin two is gregarious, thoughtful, smart and direct. Both know all the words to every song and dance move, but this twin can be infectious in her enthusiasm, demonstrative, festively happy and very loquacious. She is fluent in two languages, but her English is peppered with the teen idiom of “like.” The word “like” is inserted several times into every sentence.

Example: “Like Pop, you know, like you need hearing aids.”

Since there is some truth to her statement, I did offer to get hearing aids, if she could go an entire day without using the word, “like.” She said she could do 15-minutes, but that was it.

I learned that one is messy and one is neat. I learned that they don’t always like the same songs at the same time, but they do share and genuinely love each other to a point.

I learned all about the local 8^th grade gossip, the names of their friends and that there are clicks that sometimes cross-pollinate, but not always.

I learned what makes them laugh, get angry, get pee-ode and that most boys are dumb, particularly (name deleted). (That will change in less than a year, I figure.) I also learned what teachers they like and which ones they think don’t like them and why.

I learned they are smarter in math than I ever was. Just watching them work equations with calculators and graph paper, finding x and y and angle degrees and just seeing the amount of homework they have to do is staggering.

I am glad I am not a teenager today. There are 54 important years of experience between us. I’ve already had my first kiss, my first heart brake, and my first adult sorrow and they will soon enough.

I can’t remember much about my early experiences of the heart and I might not hear it if somebody who did remember told me.

I’ll probably go and get those damn hearing aids.