Nineteen years ago when Racheal Wells went into labor for her second child, she assumed she would have a beautiful son, who would be named Philip. Although she had not undergone an ultrasound, the doctor believed that the slow heartbeat echoing in her womb indicated a baby boy.Twenty-nine hours later, the doctor delivered her son. “Oh, Philip!” she cried. The doctor, confident that the delivery was a success, completed the birthing process. Shortly after, the patient began having contractions again, and another baby could be felt in the birth canal.

“I started giggling, and the nurse looked at me with wide eyes and said ‘PUSH,'” Wells says as she imitates the nurse. Seventeen minutes later, her second baby was born.

“Let’s name our surprise baby Philip,” her husband decided. Wells changed the first baby’s name to Jonathan.

Shocked but happy, she left the hospital with her newborn twins: Jonathan, or Johnny, and Philip Hehn.

The surprise of Johnny and Philip did not stop nineteen years ago. Now both students at Nicholls State University, Johnny and Philip encounter people who are surprised that they are twins, claiming that they were unaware there were two of them.

Johnny, a general studies sophomore, and Philip, a physical therapy freshman, are what are referred to as mirror twins. Mirror twins encompass 25 percent of all identical twins and appear to be reflections of one another. One mirror twin is usually right-handed, while the other is left-handed. According to their mother, as infants, the twins would lift opposite hands at the same time and turn their heads at the same time.

Johnny and Philip do look alike: 5 feet 10 inches tall, dark brown hair and deep brown eyes. They even share the same childhood memories, but they remain distinct individuals. Just ask Philip.

“I am my own person,” Philip insists. “I am Philip, and that’s it.”

The twins are immediately distinguished from one another by how they act. Wells says that Philip was the one who had to experiment with what he was taught to be wrong. “He smoked, chewed [tobacco] and got into other stuff,” the mother confesses. Johnny did not.

“I didn’t like chew,” Philip says with disgust. “It tasted like prunes and teriyaki sauce.”

Rebecca, the twins’ younger sister, believes Johnny has always been the “goodie, goodie.” Johnny says that he had no desire to do anything wrong. “I was passionate about serving God and being a true Christian,” he says with a slight smile.

Although Johnny has followed the straight and narrow, the twins are both on the same page now. “I don’t do all the stuff that I used to because I asked Jesus into my life and told him to take control of it,” Philip says.

The twins are also differentiated by their academic accomplishments. Johnny is often asked if he and his brother take tests for each other by tricking their teachers.

“Yeah, right,” Johnny laughs. “I never wanted that boy taking a test for me! I make better grades than him.”

Johnny has been looked upon as the smart twin ever since Philip failed the ninth grade. “People always looked at me like Johnny was smarter,” Philip says.

“Johnny wasn’t smarter than you,” Rebecca encourages Philip. “He just put in more effort than you did.”

“I still don’t want Philip taking my tests for me,” Johnny says.

Interestingly, Philip tends to make friends easier than Johnny. “Some people thought I was snobbish, but I was just shy,” Johnny says. Johnny was forced, however, to make his own friends when he advanced in high school quicker than Philip. “I didn’t have Philip to depend on anymore,” Johnny recalls.

Philip’s friends say he is a flirt. He has no desire to play tricks on his dates though, another common question that the twins are asked by classmates. “The girl would probably never call me back if I let Johnny go out with her,” Philip says confidently.

Philip remembers having his first girlfriend in kindergarten. He does not recall anything especially cute about her. “She was the only girl in the class,” Philip says. “Johnny was mad that I asked her out.”

Johnny was 18 when he met his first girlfriend at the Nicholls Baptist Collegiate Ministries (BCM). “I’m glad I waited for the right one,” Johnny says. “It saved me a lot of emotional heartache.”

Although Johnny and Philip have become unique today, their actions as children were as identical as their looks.

“When the twins were children, they did everything the same,” their older sister Shawna says. “Even if they weren’t around each other, they would do the same thing at the same time.”

The twins had even developed their own unique language, which could only be interpreted by Shawna. Cryptophasia, the secret language between twins, is not a rare occurrence among multiple births.

According to their mother, as children, the twins were both mischievous. Wells remembers an incident when the twins were 18 months old, and she could not find them. She heard them giggling, but the sound was coming from every direction of the house. Finally, she saw one little foot protruding out of the fireplace.

The twins were standing in the fireplace. Wells can still visualize the soot all over their little faces. “They were laughing and laughing. I was laughing.” That did not stop the giggling mother from spanking them, however.

The twins do not speak their own secret language anymore, and although they attend the same school, college has forced them apart. Johnny lives on campus in the BCM, and Philip, who commutes, has his own room at home in Donaldsonville.

Johnny and Philip may no longer live together, but they will always be twins. And people will continue to be surprised by their identical appearance.

But the next time a puzzled student explains she did not know that there were two of them, the student will soon realize she is mistaken again.

There are not two of them. There is one of each.

Rachelle Hitt is a mass communication junior from Gheens.