Kevin and Stephen Steen will soon embark on a new path — being apart.

The fraternal twins, who graduated from Anacortes High School Friday, have almost always had the other around.

“Neither of us have been away from each other for more than two weeks,” Stephen said.

But come fall, they will head in separate directions — Kevin to Brazil for a year with Rotary Youth Exchange and Stephen to Bellingham to attend Western Washington University.

“So much of our identity comes from the fact we’re twins,” Kevin said. “We’re Steens. We go together.”

Reflecting back on four years at AHS last week, there is little the two would do over again. Both spoke highly of their class, the school and the community. But they’re also ready for the next step. 

As he was leaving AHS Thursday, Kevin said he reflected on how familiar the school is. And how the first time he comes back to visit it will probably feel odd.

“It will feel unfamiliar and almost new again,” he said. “I like the idea that other places I don’t know now will become familiar.”

For Kevin, theater was one of the highlights of high school, especially attending the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland and performing “Voices of Vietnam” with other AHS students.

“The community really backed us up and helped us financially,” he said.

One of Stephen’s fond memories is the society of Harry Potter fanatics, called Dumbledore’s Army, that he started with fellow senior Otto Sortun. The group of about 30 students gets together for OWLs (Ordinary Wizarding Levels tests) and start of term feasts.

When they join the club, each person takes a questionnaire. Then they are sorted into houses.

“I am a proud Ravenclaw,” Kevin said.

Stephen and Kevin have also been involved with the community — including volunteering at the Department of Safety, working with the regional youth commission Christian Youth Leadership and performing in community theater.

Both feel very connected to their classmates.

“I feel a really solid bond, even with the people I don’t know,” Kevin said. “I can’t imagine not graduating with this wonderful group of people.”

They both agree their class is very accepting and has a special camaraderie.

“We have such a great class,” Kevin said. “Our class is uncommonly kind.”

He said there is a silent acceptance of everyone’s beliefs and ways of life.

“It has such a wide array of differently creative people,” Stephen said.

AHS Principal Pam Estvold said one word that describes the Class of 2008 is perseverance. It is the first class that had to meet new state graduation requirements.

“I’ve seen this group of students work really hard to make sure they’ve met the standards,” she said.

Estvold said the other thing that stands out is the group’s respectfulness.

“This is a very respectful group of young men and women. They’re respectful of all students in the building and they’ve done a great job of modeling that for other people,” she said.

Kevin said the high school has a lot of strong programs, which open doors for students.

“If you’re willing to work hard and get involved all these doors are opened. Then you have to decide what to do,” he said.

The boys don’t have many things they’d do differently in high school.

“I wish I would have tried for a 4.0, but I like how I did that,” Kevin said.

Both got an A- in the first semester of their freshman year — dashing any hopes of being a valedictorian. But Kevin and Stephen said they feel good about their grades.

Stephen wished he wouldn’t have procrastinated as much.

His junior year he left an AP English research paper for the last minute.

“I hadn’t done any research the day before,” he said. “I started at 7 the night before.”

While Stephen said he has gotten better, Kevin is still procrastinating. Thursday afternoon he had yet to write his speech for graduation the next day.

“My next item on the agenda is to write,” he said. “It’ll be the last homework assignment ever.”

They say they’re not competitive with each other.

“I’d say there is a healthy edge,” Kevin said.

He said they often get part of the credit if the other accomplishes something. But there’s also a constant desire to top the other.

“It’s not like one of us is the dysfunctional one,” Stephen said.

Being twins, Kevin and Stephen often get mistaken for the other.

“If we got upset every time people mixed us up we’d be pretty unhappy,” Kevin said. “The more you get to know us the more differences you notice.”

But even their friends — and even their mom — sometimes mix them up.

Kevin said there’s a misconception that Stephen is the funny, goofy one and he is the more serious twin who focuses on leadership.

“(With) twins you fit them into two different categories,” he said.

But as they go in different directions this fall, they will see what it’s like not to be a twin all the time.

Both have had a taste of it before.

Kevin, who is the Associated Student Body president this year, has attended leadership camp the last few years.

“It’s so outside where Stephen has been. People know me and then find out I have a twin,” he said. “It’ll be weird not to be a twin for a while.”

Kevin will spend the next year in Brazil as a Rotary Youth Exchange student. He will live with three different families, attend a high school of about 1,500 students and learn Portuguese.

“I sort of get to do my senior year again in a different language and a different country,” he said.

He already speaks Spanish and is learning some Italian at his job at Il Posto Ristorante.

“I really love languages and communicating across borders,” Kevin said.

When he returns, Kevin will attend Vassar College in New York. He plans to major in foreign relations and continue studying a language.

“I want to be an ambassador of some sort,” he said.

Stephen will attend Western Washington University in the fall to study English and eventually plans to apply to the Woodring College of Education. His goal is to teach secondary English.

“It’s my dream to teach in Anacortes. I just love this dang town,” he said. “This place is gold to grow up in.”

He also wants to continue to dapple in movies, photography and graphic design.

“I have a lot of semi-open doors I want to explore,” he said.

He also plans to continue to compose music. Using a computer, he composes songs with drums and a keyboard and then plays guitar or raps over it during solo performances.

Once he gets his degree, Stephen is also thinking about joining the Peace Corps.

The pair were hard-pressed to come up with advice for high schoolers.

“It’s hard not to think of something cliché,” Kevin said. “You have to appreciate the time you have — and listen to your mom.”