A Tale of Two Doppelgangers: James Detweiler ’18 and Ryan Hunter ’21
Courtesy of gif-finder.com via giphy.com
How would you react if you had lived your entire life blind to the fact that you had a twin from across the country? That scenario became a reality this fall for James Detweiler ‘18 and Ryan Hunter ‘21, a pair of doppelgangers from the Bay Area, California and Boston, Massachusetts respectively.
The two look so eerily similar that even James’ friends were getting them confused.
“I got a lot of texts from people saying they waved to me, and I didn’t wave back,” James said. “One way or another, someone told me I had a doppelganger and that kind of explains why waves were going unresponded.”
Courtesy of Justin Kramer
James was first alerted to the presence of his doppelganger when his I-192 Canoeing trippees bumped into Ryan at Collis.
“All my trippees were taking covert pictures of [Ryan] and sending it on GroupMe,” James said. And then they figured out [his] name so I added [him] on Facebook before I even knew [him].”
James later bumped into Ryan at Collis and revealed, “Hey, we’re twins!”
The two coincidentally bumped into each other at an off-campus housewarming party at a later date, which was an exciting experience for the both of them.
“I was so stoked because I saw him and we took a bunch of pictures together and my friends were freaking out. It was really fun,” James said.
Both are thrilled to have a twin on campus. When asked about what it felt like to have a Dartmouth doppelganger, James responded, “It feels great. It feels like after I graduate, part of me will still be here, and I love Dartmouth.”
Ryan followed, “It feels good for me too. I’ve never met anyone who people say looks exactly like me. It’s something interesting I didn’t expect to happen when I came here but I’m glad that it did.
The two share some similar preferences as well. When naming their major, the two answered, “3, 2, 1: Physics.”
Here is a more complete graph of their similarities and differences:
The most exciting development of the interview though, was not a response to any question whatsoever. At some point in the conversation, James energetically realized, “Dude we’re wearing the same pants right now! We’re wearing the same exact pants. Same color, same pants, exact.”
From pants, to majors, to most importantly looks, James Detweiler and Ryan Hunter are true doppelgangers.