We're Really Not the Same Person

Here's a Public Service Announcement for ya: My sister Lizzy, and I, despite common assumptions to the contrary, are not the same person.

You'd think it would be obvious. I'm two years older, and she's two inches taller. I have crazy hair, and she has straight hair. But we get mistaken for each other all the time by people who know our family, but clearly don't know us all that well. In 2008, Lizzy was repeatedly congratulated on her recent high school graduation and on all the scholarships she won. She was only about 14 at the time, but whatever. During a recent visit to her church, the pastor struck up a conversation with me that made it clear he thought he knew who he was talking to, but I'd never met him before. I was just going to roll with it, but Lizzy walked up after a few minutes and introduced me, to his great consternation. I occasionally meet people who take the time to clarify rather than assume. "Are you Rachel or Lizzy?" they ask. I'm not sure if Lizzy's been asked yet about how she likes married life but when that happens it will be hilarious.

I have to cut people a little slack, I know. After all, we're both brunettes of similar sizes and shapes, and, after all, we're only two out of the seven kids in our family, and it pretty much takes a genius to match names to faces 100% of the time.

Still, I'm going to give ya'll a clear-cut way to tell us apart. Look at the outfit. Here's pictures that, I think, demonstrate the difference pretty clearly.

This is what Lizzy thinks is a perfect outfit for attending the county fair. She pretty much only wears browns, greens, and blues....earth-tone type colors.

And....this is what I think is the perfect outfit for attending the county fair. Did you know that I name most of my outfits? I asked Lizzy to guess the name of this one and she said, "Genius," trying to be nice because the first thing she thought of was Clown. Turns out, she should have gone with her instincts, because this is the magnificent "Clown in Cowboy Boots" outfit.

If all else fails, you can always resort to the seaweed trick. Trust me, I would never look this happy about that much seaweed.