“It’ll be fine,” she clearly mouthed. Or did she? Maybe she was just sick of me kicking her. Maybe she was sick of my constant motion creating turbulence. Maybe she just wanted to see if I was crazy enough to try. Maybe she just said It’ll be mine. Who can really hear in here?

“Well, if this is really it, then I should be first, right?” I think I said in reply. But, in a sure fire foreshadowing of my not quite yet daily existence, I didn’t want to ponder any more of the dangers, real or perceived or “pre-conceived” or even “pre-birth” that my womb mate had been cautioning me of. I just wanted to be sure that I had thought of everything, but I was getting tired of thinking, which meant I was going to just start doing. And sometimes doing without thinking. Which again portended a life-long habit.

“It’ll be fine,” she repeated, this time with more than a smidgen of impatience in an attempt to either appease my incessant questioning or simply to reassure my suddenly fleeting courage. Or, maybe she’s telling me it’s fine as a way to trick me so she will get to go first. Or maybe she really means that it’s fine to go, but not today. Or maybe, she means that maybe she will be fine. But I won’t. Or the other way around and I should feel concerned.

“I think I am going to go. Now...or at least pretty soon. Or maybe in a few minutes...And, then...” I stammered.

“Please, DO!”, was her final exasperated exhortation to just leave her alone and get on with whatever I was going to do.

After fighting for food, space, and continuously jockeying for position for more than 8 months, the time had come for for me to take decisive action. However, as most of the next 48 years would soon demonstrate, I do not like being told what to do, I enjoy annoying others, and I like to obsess over decisions until I am certain that I am ready to be certain. Or at least certain that all eventualities can be accounted for. Or at least certain that my twin sister will not consider what I am doing to be too unsafe or crazy, as she has done for me since the day we were conceived.

Funny how one can look back at words and thoughts from the day you were born and they echo as tried and true forecasters of the journey. Or maybe that’s just me, because I am the lucky one who has been able to share a womb and thus the past 48 years (no- this is not a birthday post or anything close, just the topic on my mind) minus the 3 minutes I shot into the world ahead...with my amazing twin sister. I sure cannot believe that she can still find the time in all she does to remind me all these years later that, “It’ll be fine”.

Thanks for coming...out after me sis!