Sis­ter, Sis­ter: Sib­lings at Maryville

Think back to com­ing to Maryville and be­ing filled with nerves. Those mem­o­ries seem like so long ago, but in the mo­ment the fear of not know­ing any­one was drain­ing. For some stu­dents, their tran­si­tion to Maryville was made eas­ier know­ing they had a life­long friend at­tend­ing school here as well. Each pair of sib­lings in­ter­viewed have unique per­spec­tives about what it is like to go to col­lege with their sib­ling.

It’s a Twin Thing

Many peo­ple la­bel their best friend as their “day one,” but for twins Sierra and Sa­van­nah Buch, se­niors, that say­ing could­n’t be more true. For these two, mov­ing into col­lege was made eas­ier by hav­ing each other. “It was awe­some hav­ing some­one I knew so well and felt safe with,” Sierra said. They both ended up liv­ing on the same floor in Mou­ton their fresh­man year, but in sep­a­rate rooms to try to meet new peo­ple.

Did you ex­pect to be in col­lege with your twin?

“At first, I was against go­ing to school to­gether, be­cause we had done every­thing to­gether since birth. Maryville had both of the pro­grams we wanted to ma­jor in, so we both ac­cepted it. I was se­cretly re­ally happy to have her there with me on the new jour­ney of col­lege life,” Sierra said.

What is one of your fa­vorite mem­o­ries at Maryville with your sib­ling?

“Some­one came up to me in the li­brary ask­ing me how a class went (think­ing I was Sierra), and I did­n’t want to be rude, in­ter­rupt or em­bar­rass them so I just went with it and told them it went well,” Sa­van­nah said.

In­sep­a­ra­ble Sis­ters

Rachel Merlo, se­nior, said she ex­pected for her fresh­man sis­ter, Saman­tha Merlo, “to go to a big­ger party school, but now every­one al­ready likes her more than me.” The sis­ters have a lot in com­mon be­sides their last name, in­clud­ing that both play club soc­cer to­gether, work­out to­gether, study to­gether and even share some of the same friends.

How of­ten do you re­ally see each other?

“Maybe like three to four times a week when we played club soc­cer. Now we see each other a cou­ple times a week,” Rachel said.

Did you ex­pect to go to school with your sis­ter?

“I did­n’t ex­pect to be in col­lege with Rachel, be­cause I did­n’t want to be copy­ing her. But [it] turns out [Maryville] had the ma­jor I wanted and the school fit me just as well as it did her,” Saman­tha said.

 

Fam­ily Ties

Heather Wernle, se­nior, had been try­ing to re­cruit her brother, Michael Wernle, to come to Maryville, but “he was dead set on go­ing to school in Florida,” Heather said. Af­ter find­ing out Florida was not the place for him, Michael de­cided to come to Maryville.

What is your fa­vorite thing about hav­ing your sib­ling on cam­pus?

“Def­i­nitely the meal card” and “hav­ing his room for nap­ping,” Heather said.

“I like be­ing around my fam­ily. Be­ing away in Florida for that year, I was­n’t re­ally home­sick, but it’s nice to see fam­ily all the time. It’s com­fort­ing,” Michael said.

 

Do you think you would want to go to the same col­lege as your sib­ling? Com­ment be­low or tweet to us @Mvillepaw­print!