Fellow Human Variants,

After the hysterical, insightful, and varied presentations on the last day of classes I was putting together some thoughts for the final paper. In my presentation I added a picture of my sister, Sarah, and me from when we were toddlers and compared it to how we are now. Just to jog your memory...

Sarah on left, me on right

 

 

 

 

 

Me on left, Sarah on right

 

 

 

 

Sarah and I are 18 months apart, we have lived in the same house our entire lives, have the same parents, went to the same preschool, kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school. Considering we share so much of our genes, and our environment are virtually identical, what makes us so different?

Thinking back so stories my parents used to tell, people thought we were twins! This may be partially due to the endless matching outfits my mother provided, but also the many traits we share. Today, however, people think I'm playing a practical joke when I tell them that Sarah is my biological sister.

In this class I've learned the roll that genes play in a person's phenotype, and even today I see many similarities between Sarah and I. Once friends get to know us together they often comment how we have the same laugh, the same mannerisms, same eyes, and lips.

Maybe Sarah is so different from me because of that 18 month age gap. Even though we are so close in age we were still in different grades in school, giving us different friend groups. I am very athletic, and Sarah was always very musical, just as Sarah was always very quiet and I was always very outgoing.

Even the smallest bit of change in environment can make a difference. Sarah and I turned out very different in some ways, just because of that small age gap.

BUT genes are also very important. During the presentations I heard a lot about environment that makes you, you. For me, that holds true but my genes also make me, me. Sarah's genes make her, her, but OUR genes make us so similar.

So the moral of my story is to not dismiss genes as an influential factor, because they are! The .1% difference in humans throughout the world make variation and they make you, you.