As schools across the Washington area hold graduation ceremonies, Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland, is making headlines after revealing that 20 of its roughly 600 graduating class are identical or fraternal twins.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incredible to think that we grew up with so many friends and didn\u2019t realize that there were so many twins,\u201d said Andrew Beckman, a fraternal twin who is one of the graduates. Niles and Victoria Brown were among the fraternal twins who walked the stage at the University of Maryland\u2019s Xfinity Centre in College Park during the commencement ceremony on Tuesday. But because they were fraternal twins, many didn\u2019t even realize they were siblings.<\/p>\n
Irrespective twins Andrew and Alena Beckman competed in high school, but they were also each other\u2019s closest supporters. \u201cWe competed with each other, but we also helped each other out,\u201d Alena says. \u201cI was bad at physics, and Andrew was good. He helped me with my physics homework, and I helped him with his essays.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the twin\u2019s plan to attend the same college. Identical twin sisters Taylor and Maria Gomez will attend the University of Pittsburgh together in the fall. \u201cA lot of my friends are worried because they\u2019re going to college out of state this August and they don\u2019t know anyone, but my twins are going to the same college and we have each other to lean on,\u201d Maria says.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, some twins are parting ways for the first time in 18 years. Andrew will attend North Carolina State University, and Alena will attend Vanderbilt University. \u201cI\u2019m really nervous and tearful,\u201d Andrew says. \u201cI think we\u2019ll call each other often. I\u2019ll think more positively, but there\u2019s definitely a big change ahead,\u201d said Alena.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"