Two is better than one.....

It’s not every day that a high school graduation features not one, but two sets of twins reaching the same milestone together. 
This year, the Shiner Catholic School is celebrating the graduation of four remarkable students – Emily and Samantha Moeller and Joseph and Christopher Peters – who have shared their educational journey side-by-side, both literally and figuratively. 
Samantha, Emily, Joseph and Christopher will graduate with the rest of their class on May 30.

The Moellers

Emily and Samantha have always stood side-by-side together. Samantha is older than Emily by one minute and she considers Emily her best friend. “We’re always together and I wouldn’t make it through life without Emily,” Samantha said.
Emily and Samantha will both be going to Blinn College and both plans to study dental hygiene. They also aim to transfer to A&M and get their bachelors degree. “We’re always comfortable with each other and we don’t know any other way,” Emily said. “We’re both passionate about dental hygiene.”
They will both be moving there together and sharing a house. 
“I’m letting Sam have the bigger room,” Emily said. “We will also have a roommate. One of our classmates will be moving with us.”
Emily and Samantha participated in a lot of extracurricular activities in school. They both played volleyball all four years and softball for three years. “We didn’t play senior year because I tore my ACL this year and if I couldn’t play, Sam won’t play without me,” Emily said.
“We’re also involved in a lot clubs like student council and National Honor Society. We’re all officers in that. We’re also servers in our church and we do a lot of community service around here.” 
Graduating high school is a terrific milestone for both of the girls. “Graduating means that we can become an individual rather than having our parents watch over us,” Emily said. “It’s about becoming our own person and making our family proud.”
Samantha said getting into college will be different because they won’t be labeled as just “one of the twins.”
One of the biggest influences over the last four years for both of these girls is their parents, Janet and Robert Moeller. 
“We’ve had struggles and health issues,” Samantha said. “Emily had to have three heart ablations. We also tore both of our ACL’s. Our parents have been with us to help us through all the hard times. If we wanted to do a sport, they would go to all the games.
If we didn’t want to play a sport, they would also still support us. We played basketball freshman year, and we won and went to State. However, we weren’t really feeling like playing basketball the next year, and our dad supported us fully.”
Being identical twins, sometimes people would compare the two of the girls. 
“When we’re separated in groups and if we have a group project, it feels good to be called by our names,” Samantha said. “It feels good to be separated, but at the same time, we love being with each other and we’ve gotten used to people asking who we are.”
Emily said she admires her twin. “She understands me and when something happens, I can always lean on her. She’s very wise and I look up to her a lot. I can lean on her without feeling like I’m holding things back.”
Emily and Samantha are a bit nervous about the next chapter, but ultimately, they are excited that they can embark on this journey with each other.

The Peters

Joseph and Christopher are siblings, but also good friends. Joseph plans on studying at Texas State Technical College in Waco. He wants to study HVAC technician and aims to get his associate’s degree. “I want to take the test to be able to open a business in Shiner,” Joseph said. “My family roots run deep here.”
Christopher is also going to TSTC, but he wants to get a degree in diesel mechanics. He also aims to open up his own shop in Shiner as well.
In terms of their high school life, they did a lot of service hours for the church and outside the church. Joseph participated in sports as well including football, basketball and baseball. Chris did basketball and baseball. Both won State in baseball last year. 
Graduating high school is a huge victory for them. “It only happens once,” Joseph said. “It’s sad to leave, but I’m excited to open myself up to a lot of new things in life.”
Joseph and Christopher aren’t identical twins but being siblings have shaped their high school experience. “We don’t act the same way,” Joseph said. “We do different things. But, also, we definitely did help each other all throughout high school.”
Christopher’s biggest support throughout the last four years was his baseball coach, Charlie Meischen. “He was a big influence for me,” Christopher said. “I would talk to him in school, and he would always have funny jokes to tell you.”
Along with Meischen, Joseph also added that another influence for him throughout high school was his other coach, Jake Wachsmuth.  
Joseph said being state champion in football his freshman year and making it to state in baseball was one of his biggest accomplishments in high school. 
Christopher and Joseph both said being there for each other has shaped them into being better people. 
“Joseph is kind of different and is funny in some ways, but he’s also smart,” Christopher said. “He’s helped me throughout high school with homework. He’s a lot smarter than me.”
Christopher and Joseph may be twins, but they are essentially two different people and like different things. They both aim to stay close after high school. 
Joseph and Christopher are the sons of JR and Deborah Peters.