What are the chances?

I work in education, and one of the reasons I chose this career path was to be around children. They make me smile every day thanks to their humor, amazement, confusion, surprise and ability to make me feel like a rock star despite having no extraordinary talents that warrant celebrity status.

One thing that has made me "famous" at my school is the fact that my sister also works here. I'm amazed by how many students cannot put two and two together and figure out that we are sisters. We are both single, so still go by our oh-so-common Polish last name of Jagodowski. What are the chances of having two people with the last name of Jagodowski at the same school? Rather slim, so chances are, we're related. There are a select few students who immediately get it and don't need to be told we're sisters. And a few of them think we're twins. But the majority don't realize we are related.

"Wait, you're sisters? Really?"

Once they discover that we are, in fact, sisters, the students start searching for physical similarities. We both have brown hair, that's an easy one. But the similarities seem to end there. We have different color eyes. She is tall and thin, I'm short and ... not thin. She's all legs, I look like a weeble. Our noses are drastically different. Our face shapes are not even close. Our hands are different, so are our smiles. We don't wear the same size clothes or even the same size shoes. We don't even have the same styles in clothing. Beyond the brown hair, there aren't many similarities. Yet, students will search for ways in which we might resemble each other.

After a few minutes of their attempts to find similarities, I'll drop a bomb on them. You're right, we don't look alike. In fact, we aren't supposed to look alike. We're adopted.

"Adopted?" Wide eyes and open mouths usually follow. This is my favorite part, answering the questions about adoption. Inevitability, the first question is if we were adopted together as sisters. No, we are not biologically related. Where were we adopted from? There's typically some disappointment to discover we aren't from an exotic country, and some intrigue by the fact that we each were born within 30 minutes of where we grew up.

"So, who is older?" This one stumps them often. Typically, in a group of six or so students, they are divided fairly evenly on who is older, with a few comments of we have to be close to each other in age if we aren't twins. I'd say that on average, 55% of them guess that my sister is older. One of the reasons, I'm told, is because she wears high heels which children tend to associate with adults. Me? Flat boots, funky colored retro Born kicks and Crocs tend to round out my shoe collection. I'm a comfort over fashion type. I love the wide eyes and, "I knew it!" side comments that come when I finally announce that I'm older. They are even more amazed by the fact that I'm five years older. I guess I'm doing well for my age!

At this point, there is usually one student who asks me, "So, she's not your REAL sister?"

To which I always respond, she is absolutely my real sister ...