The date of Sam Chau's conception is the same as Shannon Chau's.

We are twins after all. But, to call us fraternal twins would be incorrect. Calling us identical twins would be equally wrong. Those terms are both way off the mark when it comes to describing us—and everybody else.

Fraternal or identical twins? It doesn't matter. They don't exist.

There are only twins.

Therefore, when it comes to children, the mother and father should always expect there to be no more and no less than two mistakes in case they decide to do it.

I'm kidding about the mistakes part. I don't want to offend anyone by saying they are a mistake. I can only say that is the case for me and Shannon.

I wasn't kidding about the two children part, however.

One law of nature: Everybody who lives on this Earth is bound by blood to one other person of the opposite sex, their twin.

Without fail, this phenomena will always come to pass along with the conditions that come with it.

Other than having a twin of the opposite sex... With the way our bodies work, us twins are also subjected to having our biology (and, by extension, our sexes) exchanged at each stroke of midnight.

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Take last night for example, Shannon and I switched bodies right as the clock hit twelve. And what happened? Shannon's hair got shorter when my hair grew longer. Shannon's breasts disappeared while my own developed. Shannon received a penis, so I received a vagina. Shannon became a he. I became a she. That is the simplified explanation.

If you were to compare both male forms or both female forms to each other, you'd think they'd be identical with our appearances differing only slightly based on our preferences. Meanwhile, if you were to compare our male and female forms to each other, they'd obviously be fraternal.

So, I guess in a way, twins are both fraternal and identical—at least until their day of reckoning.

Okay, I'm being melodramatic again, but it is true that twins must face an important issue when they come of age at eighteen years old.

That issue being twins must choose which sex they'll be for the rest of their lives. One twin must forever be biologically male. The remaining twin must forever be biologically female.

I'm not sure how the human race evolved so as to allow us to incorporate this twinning business into our biology, but I can see how it helps with our survival as a species. First, it ensures that every pair of parents produces a pair of children, reducing the risk of population decline. Second, the one male and one female deal helps make the human sex ratio nearly one-to-one. I guess these two consequences would be useful in alleviating the problems of societies suffering from overpopulation and an unhealthy preference for sons.

On the other hand, my status as a seventeen-year-old twin is actually creating tons of problems for me.

Shannon has already decided that he wants to live the rest of his life as a guy, and I would wholeheartedly support his wish—if only mine wasn't dependent on it.

That being said, I don't want to make my decision.

It's hard for me to explain my dilemma to others—my counselor, best friend, parents, and Shannon all included—but I just want to stay the same, neither strictly male nor female.

I want to stay the same because I'm scared... I'm scared of losing a part of me.

I'm scared of change.