A 2012 study reports that in every 350 to 400 births, there is one pair of identical twins. In a school of 850 people, the statistic speaks for itself. We are bound to have at least one pair of identical twins, and as it turns out, CHS sophomores Madison and Maisy Bockus have lived with the pleasure of sharing the same DNA since birth, and the sisters report that fate couldn’t have worked out any better.
“I love being twins,” Madison says without hesitation.
“Best thing that ever happened,” Maisy adds.
When asked to name a best friend, the sisters pause a beat, look at each other and laugh simultaneously, affirming a fundamental connection already obvious to any bystander. With the Bockus twins, the theories of twin telepathy seem more than plausible.
Months before their daughters were born, Dan and Alison Bockus attended a routine ultrasound just to discover they were only prepared for half of what they would now need.
Madison (left) and Maisy (right) pose together in the CHS dance room.
“The doctor said, ‘There’s two.’ We said, ‘Two what? Two arms, two legs?’ ‘No, two!’” Alison reminisces. “[It was] inconceivable to us. We were in shock for days.”
Maisy and Madison, named after singer Mazzy Star and the Elmore James song “Madison Blues,” respectively, have similarities beyond appearance. The twins are in sync, with shared hobbies and friends.
“Every time we come home from school, we either dance together or do acro-yoga together,” Maisy explains. “It’s like our homework break.”
Acrobatic yoga, according to the twins, typically features one partner to provide the strength while the other uses flexibility and agility to maximize possible positions. But the identical physical attributes of Maisy and Madison leave the sport to balance and trust.
“Acro-yoga usually ends up with the two of us on the floor laughing and crying together,” Madison chuckles.
In addition to acro-yoga, the Bockus twins are skilled on aerial silks, the sport and art they’ve learned to master at a summer camp for years.
Aerial silks consist of a gigantic strip of silk, ranging anywhere from 10 to 50 feet tall, hanging from the ceiling. The acrobat, or in this case, acrobats, use a combination of strength, grace and agility to navigate the slippery fabric and create an aesthetically pleasing performance.
“We just began to realize that we can combine our skills [on the silks] and make it cooler when we lift each other up, which is difficult but possible,” Maisy points out.
The twins have been inseparable since before birth, and they don’t plan to stray too far from each other any time soon. Post-graduation, Maisy and Madison plan on instituting a maximum of a two-hour distance between college locations 18 months from now.
“As all siblings do, when we were younger we fought a lot, but now that we’re older, we’ve grown closer and closer and closer,” Madison says.
“I don’t want to leave you!” Maisy exclaims in response.
At this point, the time the twins spend apart is minimal.
Maisy and Madison as children–unknown who is who.
“We have a big room connected by a sliding bookcase, so we can share a room or separate it,” Maisy explains. “We usually leave it open because we like to talk all night long.”
Like most siblings, everything is not always so harmonious between the sisters. When the occasional fight breaks out, the bookshelf slams shut. “Our parents are worried when things start falling off the shelves,” Madison laughs lightheartedly.
As their mother puts it, “One is super messy, one is super moody, one is always right and one is always the favorite—I can’t say which is which.”
Despite their differences, Maisy and Madison can never stay mad for too long. The twins explain the phenomenon nicely: “A twin is a lifelong best friend that you know you’ll never be separated from.”
Whether Maisy and Madison are performing a duet, suspended in the air from a billowing strand of silk or talking through the night through the retractable bookshelf, there is no doubt that they are in it together to the end.
While the statistics say identical twins come around once every 400 births, one in a million seems to describe the Bockus twins more accurately.
-Anna Gumberg