Johnson twins ready to go separate ways

By BOB VARMETTE

Journal Sports Writer

HECTOR -- Jessica Johnson was born at 6:30 a.m. Oct. 15, 1981, in Olivia. Jennifer Johnson was born at 6:40 a.m. Oct. 15, 1981, in Olivia.

Distanced by 10 minutes at birth, circumstances have rarely split the fraternal twins by much more. Now, after 18 years, Jennifer and Jessica anxiously face the ever-nearing reality of separation.

Co-valedictorians at Buffalo Lake-Hector, Jessica and Jennifer -- like thousands of 2000 high school graduates -- will say goodbye to family and friends as they head off to college. But for the Johnson twins, parting will be even more difficult because they will also be parting from each other.

Still, they knew the time would one day come.

"We figured eventually that we'd have to split up and we figured it's easiest to do now," Jessica said. "We're going to end up taking different career paths, and we'll have to split up sometime."

Jennifer agreed it's time for the circle to open.

"Both of us are ready to spend some time apart," she said. "We've always been compared to each other. People see us as kind of half of a whole. I think we each just want to see what it would be like to be treated as an individual."

Jessica is headed for Minnesota State-Mankato where she plans to double major in law enforcement and social work. Jennifer will attend North Dakota State in Fargo, N.D., where she will pursue general studies until she decides upon a major.

While leaving home to attend college is frightening for many high school graduates, it's even more so for Jennifer and Jessica because they are twins going in different directions.

"We think about it all the time, but we have no clue," Jessica said. "We can't imagine being somebody that doesn't have a twin."

But it's even scarier still for Jennifer, who will head for Fargo, not only without her sister, but without a group of friends.

"To tell you the truth, I'm totally petrified," Jennifer said. "We don't know what it's going to be like to be apart, but I still think I have to overcome that fear. I'd love to stay with people I know, that would be great. But that would be too easy."

The future seems destined to take Jessica and Jennifer in different directions. Colleges and careers may be the most obvious of the differences between the twins, but they are hardly the only dissimilarities.

Jessica is less outgoing with people other than her friends, but she's more aggressive, more spontaneous. Jennifer is more detail-oriented, more extroverted with unfamiliar people, situations and places, but she's also more contemplative.

Jennifer and Jessica share a room. Jennifer, who takes more after their mother, Deb, keeps her side neat. Jessica, who takes more after their father, Tim, lets her side of the room get a little on the messy side.

Both Jessica and Jennifer played volleyball and basketball, and each very successfully. But when the spring sports season opened, one headed for the track and the other for the softball diamond.

Jessica played softball for the Mustangs. Jennifer ran track for BLH every year except her sophomore year, and will compete at the Class 1A state meet Friday and Saturday as part of the Mustangs' 1,600-meter relay.

But for all the differences between the pair, there are many similarities, starting with the first one -- their appearances. Jennifer and Jessica are not identical, and friends can tell the two apart, but they admit they are very similar in appearance.

Jennifer and Jessica are familiar with the confusion and the comparisons. Twins in a small town and a small school seem destined for that fate, even if they are not identical.

Jessica and Jennifer are often mistaken for the other, sometimes embarrassingly so.

"This fall," Jennifer recalled, "Jessica was homecoming queen. I walked into a restaurant and the people that were in there said, 'Gee, look, it's the homecoming queen.' That felt kind of stupid."

Jennifer and Jessica each admit the similarities make comparisons and confusion inevitable. They have the same friends, like the same foods and the same music, and, for the most part, participate in the same sports.

In a few months, Jessica and Jennifer will get the chance to see what it's like to not be a twin. They will find out -- for better or worse -- whether each can flourish as much on their own as they have together.

Jennifer and Jessica have not only been outstanding students in high school -- they have also excelled in sports, particularly in volleyball. The twins helped lead the Mustangs to a Class 1A state runner-up finish in 1999.

"They're natural leaders, they lead by example," BLH volleyball coach Sue Alstrom said. "They've always worked really hard at it and they're not going to let anything stand in their way."

Neither can remember a time when sports wasn't a part of their lives. In elementary school, it was kickball and matball and whiffleball. And there were elementary track and field days.

It didn't matter to Jessica and Jennifer. It was all fun to them.

It was also an opportunity for them to put their natural competitiveness into play.

"We're competitive in every single thing," Jessica said. "Everything turns into a kind of match. ... I knew coming into my junior year that she had over 100 kills and I had 20 or 30. That drove me to keep going, to keep playing hard."

Alstrom remembers the competition between the two when she first saw Jennifer and Jessica in elementary school.

"They were always competitive," Alstrom said. "They always wanted to be on the same team, they both always wanted to win."

While Jessica and Jennifer have always been competitive with each other, they have also been one of each other's biggest cheerleaders. And there is the natural support system.

But soon the support system will be stretched. As much as Jennifer and Jessica thought about it and discussed it, it's still a reality that wasn't easy to accept. But both have; both will move on and both will remain best friends.

It is, after all, cool to be a twin.

Each believes, in the end, the separation will make their relationship stronger. Each imagines a future where their separate paths will lead them back together, and the circle will be completed.

"I think that we'll probably end up living not too far from each other," Jessica said. "We'll probably have our kids play sports with each other."