My sister is my soulmate. We, as twins, are not the obvious candidates for being labeled soulmates, but, considering that Master Class says that soulmates have an intense connection with each other, I’d argue that we most definitely are. In fact, I think most of us have a friend, parent, cousin or sibling who just knows our entire being, and if that’s not a soulmate, I don’t know what is.
My sister Abby and I are essentially in sync most of the time — we laugh at the same jokes, our voices meld together in harmony when we sing and we finish each other’s sentences. But there’s something more to us than being sisters — we are life partners — which is why I like the idea of us being soulmates.
Backed by the masterpiece works of art that are rom-com movies, society tries to tell us that romantic relationships are the only place to find your soulmate or life partner. And while romantic love is beautiful and fulfilling in its own way, it would be quite harmful to ignore the wholehearted benefits of embracing platonic soulmate–partners.
Abby and I embrace this idea and get the privilege to see each other through the ups and downs of life. When I get bad news, say something embarrassing in class or get the opportunity I’ve been wanting, she is the first person I call, and vice versa. Depressed, elated or annoyed, we talk it out and lean on each other.
When she bought her first car, I went to the dealership and test-drove it with her. And at the end of each day, we debrief over dinner or, when we’re busy, on the phone. When our friends get together, Abby and I host them jointly, even though we don’t live together.
We, as a society, have already started changing the narrative on the idea of exclusively romantic soulmates. A few months ago, my Instagram Reels and news alerts were occupied by a story about six women buying a house together to retire in. It intrigued me immensely because if I think of my ideal future, it’d be living in close proximity to Abby, our friends and romantic partners. And after a quick Google search, you’d find that people buying houses with people they aren’t married to is a pretty popular concept. The epitome of life partnership — owning a house together — just shows that romantic partnerships aren’t the end all be all. We can (and do) live in different ways.
To further encapsulate my close relationship with Abby, I’ll tell a story of my discussion with a spiritual medium about past lives. She believed this life wasn’t the first life I’d lived and that my soul had lived for centuries. Normally, I am skeptical about the idea of having lived a different life in the past, but I believed her in that moment. I was fascinated and had a thousand questions for her, but loving my sister in the strong way I do, the first thing I had to ask was, “Do you think Abby and I knew each other before?”
The words hung electrically in the air as she told me, “Yes, I just got chills. Y’all definitely were sisters in a different life.”
You don’t have to believe in past lives to recognize that the person you could call your soulmate, whoever they may be, is connected to you on a different level. I couldn’t be more proud, happy and lucky to call Abby mine. So call your soulmates as you see them — and no, it doesn’t have to be your sweetheart.
Sure, in our lives, we’ve both had romantic partners and will likely have more, but there’s no soul-to-soul connection like ours that I’ve found in someone else. And, although romantic relationships might come and go, we, as both family and friends, have each other forever.
