To the untrained listener, the best way to absorb the confluent rush of words from the identical mouths of twins Timothy and Symon Rowlands is to abandon all hope of keeping track of who is saying what.

"I tend to be a little more to myself," says Timothy, by way of differentiation. "I’m more, um …"

"Introverted," Symon offers.

"Yeah, introverted. I like having …"

"I’m more outgoing," Symon interjects. "More extroverted."

"I like having time to reflect on things," Timothy continues. "It’s …"

"Yeah, our close friends realize …"

"It’s how I get my energy."

"Our friends realize this about us right away."

"Yeah."

The twins laugh at the ongoing duel that is their everyday dialogue, explaining their unique lingual mash-up as a product of their natural competitiveness and their ability to anticipate just what the other is thinking.

"We used to double-date but the girls would get overwhelmed," Symon says, laughing. "So we don’t do that anymore."

The brothers are wrapping up impressive high school careers at Mid-Pacific Institute. Symon has a 3.53 grade point average, Timothy a 3.528 (not that anyone is keeping track).

Both have an appreciation for the humanities, and both are active in MPI’s innovative School of the Arts. But while Timothy is drawn to theater, Symon finds freedom of expression through dance.

The twins’ parents, Maria Beltran and Winston Rowlands, met on the dance floor at a New Year’s party in their native Peru. They were married four months later.

"When we found out we were having twins, I cried because I was so happy," says Beltran, a former professional ballerina and founder of the Alive Ballet Center.

Together, Beltran and her husband did whatever they could to nurture their children’s natural gifts — in the classroom, on the stage or at the beach, where both brothers work part time as surfing instructors.

Timothy and Symon will soon leave Hawaii to attend the University of Miami on full scholarships. In addition to their studies, the brothers say they hope to start a program to teach underprivileged children and disabled people how to surf.

"When your children are first born, you try to plant a seed in them," Beltran says. "And as they get older, you try to nurture that seed and help them to be appreciative of what God gives us. But then they become teenagers and you think, ‘What did I do wrong? They’re terrible!’

"But you keep trying, and then one day you realize that seed has grown inside of them. When I look at my sons now, I think, ‘Wow, they’re men.’"

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Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.