Features

Tremaine and Tywayne Buchanan are 'As thick as thieves'

By WANDEKA GAYLE, Staff Reporter

Tremaine and Tywayne Buchanan - Wandeka Gayle

ONE THING IS certain when meeting teenage 18-year-old twin brothers, Tremaine and Tywayne Buchanan for the first time, they refuse to live in the shadow of each other's achievements.

Although their features are strikingly similar, they insist that their distinct personalities, interest and abilities set them apart from each other.

The twins, born to Selvyn and Noveletta Buchanan of Eight West, Greater Portmore, and presently in upper sixth form at Wolmer's High School for Boys, have very different career choices in mind.

Tremaine plans on becoming an urban planner or a land surveyor, while his other half, Tywayne, wants to be an accountant or a computer analyst.

Tremaine insisted that his brother is the more athletic one as he earned third place in the Carifta Trials 400 metre hurdles and ran in the winning four by 400 metre race in the Boys Champs held in March.

"He is winning these things and I feel his success falls on me," Tremaine explained, "People see me on the road and think it's him and then they feel I should be doing these things too."

Similarly, Tywayne feels the same about his brother's academic accomplishments in Caribbean Examinations Council's passes. While his brother got seven passes with five distinctions and he only earned six passes and two distinctions, he does not consider himself a 'dumb jock'.

"I don't want anyone to say that I don't have brains because I play sports," he told THE STAR. He outlined that since primary school both have been competitive in their work.

"When we were at Winward Road Primary and Junior High if he got 99 percent in something, I would get 100 and if I got 99, he would get 100, it was just like that," he said.

As it relates to personality, both are jovial young men but Tremaine believes his brother to be the more talkative one. Tywayne agreed that he was more expressive and his brother, more reserved.

Yet, the two are as thick as thieves since birth until now. In fact, their mother Noveletta states the ultra sound showed their hearts beat as one which caused doctors to believe that she carried only one child.

"It took an x-ray to know it was two babies because the ultra sound only showed one," Noveletta told THE STAR, "Then they thought they were Siamese twins because they were so close."

Their bond as twins has been strengthening over the years as they have grown together. "Sometimes our mother says to us that we are keeping secrets," Tremaine confided with a smile.

The longest they have ever been apart is a week at most. One remarkable behaviour pattern is that since their infancy, both rarely sleep at the same time.

"When I would put one to sleep, the other would wake up," their mother explained laughingly. "It was like the other one acted like a little security guard for the other."

Though they share a closeness that is the twin trademark, they believe they dispel every myth about twins.

"We tell the truth about twins," Tywayne began. "We can't sense each other's pain, we don't think alike, or even act alike."

They are also adamant that while in the growing years they may have switched roles now and then, they never played games on their love-interests before.

"They know us differently anyhow," Tremaine confided.