What happens when your twin sister comes to school?

My sister's been very busy with First Communion-related events (yay!) with her students this weekend, but she took a break on Saturday night to come out to my school's performance of Peter Pan, Jr.

All week my middle school students were extremely excited that my sister would be in attendance. (Some of them were quite distressed when she wasn't with me before the show began - she was coming separately a little closer to curtain time.) They knew I had a twin, but most of the 6th and 7th graders had never met her previously...

Student A: How will we know which one is the real Miss Foyle?
Me: It will be easy. She won't know your names.

Student B: What's her name?
Me: Miss Foyle...for now.
Student B: No, like her real name?
Me: Miss Foyle. :)


The show was quite a spectacle, as it usually is, and afterwards my sister, her fiance (yes, he came too - what a trooper!), and I were still in our seats waiting for the crowd to thin so we could go congratulate the students. Lo and behold, some 6th graders found us, and they definitely had more enthusiasm than they knew what to do with. When I introduced them to my sister and her fiance, they shifted gears to asking about the wedding:

Student A: Are you going to be in the wedding, Miss Foyle?
Me: (Sarcastically) No.
Student A: (laughs)
Student B: Are you going to hold flowers?
Me: Yes.

Meanwhile, another 6th grader walked up. She was more composed and calm. The girls we had been speaking with were trying to fill her in on the wedding, but this young lady was trying to make a deeper connection...

Student C (one who just walked up): That's your sister and her fiance? So, that's her vocation, right Miss Foyle - married life?
I wanted to hug that girl right there and then - yes! That's exactly what we've been talking about in religion class the past week - the 4 vocations as taught by the Church.
Me: Yes, that's exactly right. Her vocation is married life.



I'll admit, I run into a challenge every year when I teach the students about vocations because I'm not quite sure I've found my own yet. (That's right, I'm 32 years old and still not sure what God wants me to do with my life.) Questions from the students come from a place of genuine curiosity, but I don't have the answers, and, quite frankly, it makes me a little uneasy:

Miss Foyle, are you going to get married? (Maybe?)
Miss Foyle, are you committed single life? (I'm not sure about that one.)
Miss Foyle, have you thought about becoming a nun? (Yes, but that was a long time ago.)
Miss Foyle, if you could become a priest would you? (Probably not...)

There is one vocation, though, that all of us share, and that is a universal call to love (which we are getting to this week and next), and this is a vocation I strive to live out every day. Love is a choice; love is willing the good of the other, even those we do not particularly like or with whom we may be frustrated at any given moment. As Jesus says in the Gospel of John, "Love one another as I have loved you."

So, at least for now, I'll focus on this vocation of love - goodness knows there are endless opportunities to practice it during the school day. And, through continued prayer and discernment, I trust God will more clearly show me my other vocation as well...