One of Those Faces

Thursday I was raking leaves with SUU Student Alumni when a girl came up to me and asked me my name. I was confused. She didn't look familiar and we hadn't been conversing, so I couldn't imagine why she wanted to know. "Rachel," I replied, my voice chipper. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh. Well, you look a lot like this girl Brooke, from America's Next Top Model and I thought you might be her."


"Really? Wow, that's so flattering! Thanks!"

This wasn't a new thing to me. I'm used people starting sentences with, "You know, you look a lot like..." One of the most popular endings to that phrase is Piper Perabo from Coyote Ugly.


I also get a lot of, "I have a friend who looks just like you." I laugh and tell them I want a name and a picture so I can keep record of all of these people. The Japanese have a saying that everyone has five doubles of him or herself (or so I learned from Barefoot Gen); I want to see if I can surpass that number.

Not everyone I've been compared to is an actual person. When I was about ten, I went with my father on a business trip and a woman we met told me I look like Kira from The Dark Crystal. I certainly had that exact same hair!


I've also been told that Rikku from Final Fantasy 10 resembles me. Her facial structure is very Japanese, and mine just isn't, but apparently there's a cut scene where she has my impish grin. And you know, I'm okay with that. I think Rikku rocks.


I think on the whole my lookalikes seem to be blond, with full lips and respectably sized ears. I bet there are tons of people who fit that description. There certainly are in my family. My grandma keeps mistaking me for an older cousin, but that's mostly because she's getting a bit senile. A few weeks ago, my little sister was very upset when I was home for the weekend and her friend said we look alike. She hasn't quite accepted the fact that my parents cloned me to get her and our younger sister.


I'm looking forward to see who I'll be compared to in the future. For now, though, I'm just really happy to be me! I think that's pretty neat, because whether I look like a model, an actress, a Gelfling, an Al Bed, a cousin, or a little sister, I'm always going to be myself.


...oh man, that last line was cheesy.