Before the cherub program, I had grown accustomed to answering to the name of my identical twin sister, Sarah, as well as “Sarabecca,” a fusion of our names created by our parents when we were babies that has stuck to this day. Not only do I share this nickname with my sister Sarah, but I share just about everything else with her. My clothes, my room, my birthday –- calling these things “mine” may not be completely accurate.

While Sarah was crunching numbers at an engineering camp, I was studying journalism at Medill. Since the time we were crammed in a womb together for nine months, we had never truly been separated until this summer.

It didn’t hit me until I entered my single dorm room in East Fairchild on June 26. There was not another bed stacked on top of mine. For the first time in my young-adult life, I was just Rebecca. Would other cherubs find me interesting without my better half?

To my surprise, my debut as “just Rebecca” could not have gone better. This summer, I grew as a journalist in ways I never thought I could, in ways that my sister has not and most likely will not. I befriended journalists from across the country and the world. I overcame rotating rewrites, grueling interviews and trend stories. While I couldn’t always turn to my sister when stress piled up, I had fellow aspiring journalists who have become some of the closest friends I will ever have.

Sarah will always be my best friend, but now I’m glad to say I’ve made 83 more.