FORT LEE, Va. -- Breaking some the ties of brotherhood can be difficult. Just ask the Castillo twins.
The 19-year-olds from Merced, California are your typical twins. Growing up, Moises and Macario Castillo dressed alike, participate in the same activities, and were known to cause occasional identity confusion in their schools and neighborhood.
When they graduated high school, however, they chose to part ways for roughly a year and developed lives removed from the ones they knew as kids. Moises relocated to the Seattle area to attend college and Macario stayed behind in Merced.
The separation bore some hard truths, said Macario.
"To be honest, you are not used to living without that person you've been living with your whole life," he said. "You have this sense of emptiness. You wake up and you're used to seeing that person and then one day, they're gone."
Moises said his experience being away from his brother was similar.
"When I moved out, I had to kind of do things on my own instead of talking to him and deciding what 'we're' going to do," he recalled of his new life.
Eventually, they discussed joining the Army as a way to correct their abrupt parting. Today they serve as advanced individual training privates assigned to Romeo Company, 262nd Quartermaster Battalion.
"We both agreed to join together," said Macario. "It was an 'if I do it, you do it' kind of thing."
The Castillo twins joined the California Army National Guard roughly a week apart as water treatment specialists. They attended basic combat training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina and arrived in Fort Lee to attend advanced individual training in August.
Moises plans to attend community college in Washington and pursue a degree in civil engineering at the University of Washington. He also wants to pursue a spot on the school's boxing team. Macario also wants to pursue civil engineering but has not decided upon a college. He plans to box as well.
Their plans today seem to be essentially the same as they were before they joined the National Guard, but with one important difference: they have come to terms with the realization that transitioning from lifetime of sharing to separate lives takes time.
"Going to college will have a lot of responsibilities we need to take care of, so we won't be able to stay in touch like we use to," said Moises. "In high school, it was easy to just go home and talk about it. In college, you have to focus on passing and pursuing your own career."
Macario is somewhat torn by the transition, but he believes it's necessary.
"In a way I think it's actually good, but it's kind of bad," he said. "I realize you have to learn to let go and let the other person pursue his own life or else [he] can never pursue it as a person."
In their new lives and careers, the brothers will still have much in common. Both will be National Guardsmen pursuing the same skill set, the same college major, and the same sport.
"Since we're in the same weight class (lightweight), maybe we can eventually fight each other," said Moises.
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