Nearly identical finish for Española twins
Mom cries tears of joy as daughters finish as co-valedictorian, salutatorian
When the nurse told Danielle Seaboy she was going to give birth to not one but two daughters, the single mother panicked. “I thought, ‘What am I going to do with two babies? How am I going to take care of them?’ ” recalled Seaboy, an English teacher at Pojoaque Valley Middle School. “I cried.” But 18 years later, Seaboy will gladly shed tears of joy Saturday as the two girls — Leah and Therese Lujan — graduate from Española Valley High School as the senior class’s co-valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively. Leah shares her honor with Joseph Sena.
What’s unusual is that Seaboy’s daughters are not only
identical twins but mirror twins, meaning their features appear asymmetrically — that is, on opposite sides. For example, Therese is right-handed and Leah is a lefty.
This mirror goes beyond the physical and seeps into their personality traits. Therese, her mom said, is more open and boisterous. But she has a very messy bedroom.
Leah, on the other hand, is quiet and more observant, but so well-organized that her bedroom, even during graduation week, is clean and orderly.
It will be interesting to see how the two sisters cope when sharing a dorm room at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, where they’re headed in August.
“We were going to go to separate colleges, but we couldn’t be apart,” Leah said. “It’d be weird,” Therese said. One thing they have in common is a drive to excel academically — an initiative the girls have shared from an early age.
Part of that push comes from their mother, who has always wanted them to succeed.
But much of their motivation comes from each other.
“We push each other to be competitive,” Leah said.
“We’re kinda mean to each other,” Therese said. “Like when we’re playing softball, I’ll say, ‘Come on. You suck. Do it well.’ ”
“And in class, I’ll be like, ‘You got a 92; I got a 95,’ ” Leah said.
Their mother said she doesn’t care what motivates them. Because as a mom, Seaboy said, “It makes me so proud to see the accomplishments they’ve made and how hard they’ve worked to be here. As a teacher, I want that for all of my students.”
Leah and Therese Lujan are looking forward to an even more challenging curriculum in college, where Leah will study mechanical engineering and Therese will pursue chemical engineering.
As they’ve aged, the sisters have become more used to jokes and questions about being twins. They know them all. Do they feel each other’s pain? (No.) Can they telepathically communicate? (No.) Do they like being twins?
“We don’t know what it’s like to not be a twin,” Leah said.
But it’s tough for them to let go of the fact that it’s tough to let go of each other.
For example, they will share a car in Las Cruces “because we do everything together,” Leah said.
They plan to graduate together and return to Northern New Mexico, ideally to work for Los Alamos National Laboratory.
“Maybe we could live next to each other,” Therese said.
“Maybe we’ll live different lives someday,” Leah said. “Maybe,” Therese said. “Maybe,” Leah said. For now, they are basking in the growing excitement of graduation.
On Saturday, they will take the stage at Edward Medina Gym and give their graduation speeches. While the most recent GPA scores are not available, in the fall semester, Therese had a 4.75 and Leah a 4.50. But a final push in the spring semester apparently sent Leah to the top spot.
“It’s a good way to start off life,” Therese said. “Closing one chapter and starting another one.”
“I hope it makes the people who helped us proud,” Leah said.
They’re making their mother proud. Holding back tears — far different from those she shed 18 years ago — Danielle Seaboy said that watching her girls graduate will, “make me feel good … that they were able to carry themselves through well.
“It gives me assurance that I did something right as a single mom.”