Although they are identical, freshman twins Shin and Young Kim ’19 have interests that are far from uniform.
Both brothers are student athletes and participate in the high school’s cross country and swimming teams. While Shin spends most of his free time reading, Young spends his free time participating in many clubs including Science Olympiad, Academic Decathlon, and the Student Congress.
Despite their wide range of activities, the brothers both share a passion for swimming and exercise.
“My favorite activities are running and swimming,” said Shin. “I like the thrill of speed and effort from the two sports and I enjoy the excitement I get from my teammates.”
Young uses swimming as a means of getting away from the stressful school day.
“My eight years of competitive swimming experience is by far my favorite activity because though it does get strenuous and the end product is rewarding,” said Young. “It also gets my mind off of the other activities I do as well as the stressful school day.”
The Kim brothers say, that like many other people with twins or siblings who are close in age, they experience a great competition between them.
“Because we are identical twins many people tend to have us mixed up a lot, and it takes many people several days to find distinctions which can be frustrating,” said Young. “Despite this, the chemistry between us is much easier to achieve and although there is competition we still are able to relate to each other and sometimes help each other.”
Although Shin has not gotten any out-of-school recognition thus far, last spring, Young won two gold medals and one silver for the events Experimental design, Anatomy and Green generation at the State meet for Science Olympiad. He also got 18th place, his first year running cross country, at the all state Massachusetts Twilight freshman meet this fall.
While both brothers are avid members of the high school community, they find the community welcoming and beneficial for different reasons.
“I try to be active to the community as best I can because I believe that one helps a community you will have a broader perspective of types of people around them,” said Young. “I like how the town is a group of individuals that somehow come together to make a whole,” said Shin.Shin contested.
As for the rest of high school both brothers have set different goals for
themselves. “I plan on managing my time better(always was a problem), maintaining a positive relationship with friends throughout high school,” said Young. Aside from academics, I hope to break a 18:00 min 5k for cross country and a 1:06 breaststroke 100yrd for swimming.”
While he also hopes to improve athletically, Shin has less concrete goals for the future.
“My goal for high school is to hang in there and embrace whatever the future has for me,” said Shin.
(Celia Golod ’17, Features Editor)