HEMPSTED, NY (AP) — A high school located on the outskirts of New York City will double the day of graduation this weekend. Of the nearly 500 students in their graduation class, 30 are twins.
It’s a tight knit group. Some of the students at Beth Page John F. Kennedy High School in Plain View, Long Island, have known each other since their parents met through their local Twins club. Some still plan family vacations together.
Recently, some of the twins have been on the group text chain, which has helped them deal with their new infamies as graduation date approaches.
“To be honest, when we’re together, the room is electricity,” Sidney Monka said. She attended a graduation rehearsal with the other twins earlier this week. “We’re all very comfortable with each other and we all have these shared experiences, so we all bounce back at each other. It’s really cool.”
They are twins, but not identical
However, aside from the shared surnames, it may be difficult to find a pair when walking the stage on Sunday at a high school graduation held at Hofstra University in Hempstead.
All students are sibling twins, meaning they were born from different eggs and sperm. So none of them are the same. Many twins are of different genders.
Bali Cohen, who attends Indiana University in the fall, said it doesn’t really make bonds that tight.
“Many people think it’s like a sibling, especially for boy-girl twins, but it’s more than that, because we’re going through the same thing at the same time,” she said of her brother, Braydon Cohen, heading to the University of Pittsburgh.
Most often, when produced, they playfully shruggle at the strange phenomenon of a high school in a wealthy, white neighborhood about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Manhattan.
“I think there’s something underwater,” says Emily Brake, a member of the University of Georgia, who repeats the common refrain between twins.
“We’re all very fortunate, and I think it’s just a coincidence,” added her sister Amanda Brake, who attends Ohio State.
Others admit that there is more to the workplace than a mother.
Arianna Cammareri said her parents had been working hard to have a child for years, and in vitro fertilization was their last option. At the time, it was more common than it is now. IVF baby Twins or three years old.
It is also possible that genetic elements are being developed.
“We have a few twins in our family, just like we have twin cousins, so I think it’s a greater chance of having twins,” added a freshman at Stony Brook University in Long Island.
Other schools with large sets of twins
A large cohort of twins is not uncommon in the old Bethpages of Plainview. High school has a 10 sets of consecutive graduation classes in 2014 and 2015, with nine sets of twins in the freshman class next year.
Among other schools across the country, featuring a large set of graduation twins, Clovis North High School in Fresno, California, is 14 pairs, and Eleno Arroes Belt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland, is 10 pairs.
Last year, a suburban Boston middle school had it. 23 sets of twins In my graduation class, I’m still shy about records of most multiples in the same academic class. New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois had a whopping 44 twin pairs and triplets in 2017. According to Guinness World Records.
After graduation
Most of the twins in Plainview are headed to different universities, with most of the twins in Bethpage.
The exceptions are Aiden and Chloe Manzo. He both attended the University of Florida, where he lives in the same dorm on campus, and although both majors are different, they study both.
“We’re going to see each other a lot,” Chloe struggled.
“Deeply, my mother knew that it would be easier if we went to the same school,” she added. “You’re like moving, graduating, going to a sports game.”
Some were worried about living far away from their longtime partners in crime.
Emma and Kayla Leibowitz attend Binghamton and Syracuse University, respectively. The fifth-generation twins say they already plan to visit frequently, despite the schools in upstate New York being about 80 miles (130 kilometers) apart.
“I think it’s going to be really weird because we really do everything together. She’s my best friend. I can’t really do anything without her,” Emma said.
“We sleep every weekend. I come to football games like everything,” Kayla said.
Others were looking forward to getting a breathing room.
Sydney and Kayla Jasser said they both study fashion design, but are studying at different universities. Sydney attends the University of Delaware, while Kayla attends Indiana University.
“We could have gone to the same university, but we were with each other forever, so we just wanted to be independent,” Kayla said. “It’s good to get out there and have our own experience.”
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