Even though Myles and his classmate have never visited each other’s houses, they were best friends at school. In fact, they were inseparable.
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When “Twin Day” rolled around at school, Myles knew instantly who he wanted to match. But, being a kindergartener, Myles remembered to tell Mom Britney Tankersley at bedtime about Twin Day and that he wanted to be paired with his buddy Tanner.
Myles kept insisting how much alike he and his pal truly looked and that he and his friend just had to be twins for the day.
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At first, Mom Britney was a bit put off. She wasn’t sure who this classmate was exactly, had no way to reach out to his mom and no matching outfits.
“He went on and on about how they looked exactly the same. ‘We both have brown eyes, we both have dark hair,’ and he was just adamant … so I head to Walmart and I’m like, irritated. I’m like, this is too late. I’m too old for this.”
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Britney first spent an hour attempting to track down Myles’ friend’s mom and then headed to the store near their home in Alabama at about 9 p.m. She found two cute plaid “Future Leader” buttondown shirts in their sizes.
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After all of her post-bedtime scavenging for a Twin Day outfit, Britney darn sure wanted a photo of her efforts. She asked Myles’s teacher to snap a quick photo of her son and his twin for the day.
Myles, who wears a cochlear implant, kept insisting he and his friend Tanner were twins and looked a ton alike, so she couldn’t wait to see them together in their matching outfits.
When the teacher sent Britney the photo, she was stunned.
“Obviously two very different children, but Myles didn’t see that. Wouldn’t the world be such a better place if we could all view it through the eyes of a couple five-year-olds?”
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Then she burst into tears.
“I was basically crying because it was so sweet. Obviously, I know that they don’t look alike at all. But he didn’t see that, you know? I expect to get a picture of another white child with light skin and brown hair, whatever, but I didn’t get that at all. And I said, ‘That is the sweetest thing in the whole world.’”
Tankersley shared the photo on her personal Facebook page where it has since gone viral and was shared more than 250,000 times.
“It’s so crazy. My objective is never to be in the spotlight, but I think the message is more important than how much it exploded.”
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Myles and Tanner truly are “the best of buddies,” Tankersley said and actually only live a few minutes away from each other. Ever since Twin Day, the families have been able to spend time together so the boys could have a playdate outside of school hours.
The teachers at school were thrilled to see Tanner and Myles dressed to match. They agreed it was a heartfelt moment.
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“There’s always a lot of kids that dress up that don’t look alike, but this was unique. I was kind of put in my place because I was expecting to see something totally different, and that’s not what it was at all.”
The innocence and sweetness of children are something that we can certainly all learn from. Myles and Tanner are examples of the loving humans we should all strive to be.
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