“Everybody always compares us. Nobody really knows me individually. We’re always grouped together,” senior Alanna Cordova said.
As Alanna’s high school graduation date slowly approaches, this identical Cordova twin is faced with life’s many options. Her future lies ahead and, as life goes on, she will make her own path.
“During senior year, it seems like we’re separating. Any time before this, I would definitely say we were going to live right next to each other forever, but now I don’t think we’ll be next to each other for the rest of our lives,” Cordova said.
They hang with the same crowd, have similar style; they even plan to go to the same college. Alanna said she’s going to college to study psychology and her sister will study health. She also said they are loyal friends, not just to each other, but others as well.
“We’re both really big on being healthy. Mine’s more in the mind and hers is physically. Plus, we’re one of those friends that, no matter what anybody does, even if they do something mean to hurt us, we’re still really loyal to them,” Cordova said.
Even though their lives connect in many different aspects, there are plenty of differences to set these two apart.
“She’s more in control of herself. I let my emotions get to me. She’s really level headed. People can look at us and talk to us and we’ll seem the same, but if someone were to have a real conversation with us, the way we come at people is really different. She thinks about what she does before she does it and I just jump in and do it,” Cordova said.
As a twin, Cordova said she loses her individuality sometimes, but in a way it’s worth it.
“I think I miss out on having individual experiences. I’m always doing things with her. I don’t do anything by myself, but I’ll always have a best friend. People worry about making friends, but I’ll never have to worry about that,” she said.
As far as individuality goes, Cordova said she is different from her sister and if people pay attention, she’ll show them who she is.
“I’m really well rounded. I’m not really good at one thing, but I do a lot of. I’m not really bad at anything, but I’m not super good at anything either,” Cordova said. “I like to run, study, work, read, paint, cook, plant.”
Despite being a jack-of-all-trades, Cordova said she strives to be successful in her field and wants to feel as if she’s doing something important.
“I really want to be happy and make others happy. I’ve never been depressed, but I’ve had a lot of people around me dealing with depression,” Cordova said.
Cordova said she wants to study behavioral neuroscience and make a difference in peoples’ lives. Her passion for helping others built up over time and was inspired by the people she loved who often struggled with depression.
“Since I was little, I’ve had people around me struggling with depression and I couldn’t figure out how to help them. These were people that I loved and I didn’t know what to do to help them. The more I saw it, the more I wanted to spend my life helping them,” Cordova said.
Cordova said her greatest quality is empathy, a quality required of someone so willing to dedicate her life to others.
“When someone is feeling sad about something, I will think about what they’re going through and really understand. I want to help make people happy,” Cordova said.
