By Yolanda and Nicolette Vera
We have enjoyed our "double trouble" years with all their frustrations and laughs.
It has been nineteen years of pros - which have been amusing - and cons, which we have battled with.
Pros such as the ideas, thoughts and laughs that we have shared, encouragement during the depressing moments and a close friend to talk to who is willing to listen to the problems.
But there are a few of those unappreciated moments, such as the enlightened arguments due to personal opposing opinions.
The most irritating part of our lives is that people expect our personalities to be as similar as our looks.
We have interests in different fields, such as art and travel, and we have different likes and dislikes. We are left- and right-handed, and have opposite mannerisms relating to the different hemispheres of the brain.
When people treat us as one person, it feels like one of us is being ignored.
We enjoy our different personalised lifestyles but appreciate the close relationship we have with one another.
If people regard us as two different people it makes us feel like we are both appreciated, but when we are referred to as "twin", we are being labelled the same and we are not known for who we both are, only what we are.
We have tried the famous twin identity change but our little differences have been too well noted by family and friends for us to get away with it.
But there have been a couple of occasions when a stranger has noticed two very similar people in the same place and thought it was the same person with just a change of hairstyle.
Being an identical twin, we find people notice any differences in our behaviour - even the slightest thing such as the way we eat.
The knowledge that another person is basically your other half makes life that little more meaningful and interesting.