The two Mackenzies: Surreal sisterhood destined from day 1

“Do you think the universe fights for souls to be together? Some things are too strange and strong to be coincidences.”
― Emery Allen

While meeting three years ago during new student orientation, Mackenzie Nord and Mackenzie Downs thought it was unique that both their first names were spelled with a lowercase k. Little did they know that this was just the start of their uncanny connections.

One of their mothers was determined to use an uncommon spelling, while the other’s father filled in the birth certificate after her mother delivered by an emergency cesarean section. The latter was originally supposed to be spelled McKenzie.

It also turned out the duo were planning on majoring in communication sciences and disorders as they started their first semester at Purdue University Fort Wayne.

“We kind of got talking and got to know each other,” Nord said. “We figured out that we were probably going to be friends.”

After going home the next day—Peru for Nord and Noblesville for Downs—both looked at the other’s Instagram account. Downs noticed a friend had posted a happy birthday message to Nord on Jan. 11, which just happens to be Downs’ birthday.

Figuring someone might have left the message a day early or late, Downs contacted Nord to confirm what couldn’t be true. Turns out the two were born 12 hours apart in 2005.

“The more we hung out, the more I realized how many similarities we have,” Downs said.

Like that Downs goes to church with Nord’s aunt, who mentioned Downs was friends with her niece. When asked her name, the aunt replied, “She’s the other Mackenzie.”

“I was like, `You have to be kidding me,’” Downs said.

Besides being dedicated students, the duo found another similarity when ordering from food trucks. Using abbreviated versions of their first names, “Mack” for Downs and “Kenzie for Nord, their orders were always exactly the same, cheeseburgers with pickles.

Whenever they’d often sit next to each other in class, they’d use those nicknames.

“Finding Mack at PFW was like finding my other half that I didn't even know about,” Nord said. “Our friendship made the transition to college so easy. It was like being friends with someone you knew your whole life, only we had just met. I definitely didn't see this coming, but finding Mack was just fate!”
As Downs’ boyfriend Arden Calvert said, “I want to say this in like a weird way, but you guys are the same person, just in a different font.”

Nord’s boyfriend, Kyler Hanson, a PFW engineering student, didn’t believe it either.

Calvert prefers not to call Downs “Mack,” but when he says Mackenzie, both react, and might even be doing it on purpose.

“I think they are probably tired when the two of us are together,” Nord said. “I think they are probably like, `Let’s separate these two.’”

The females say they’ve never gotten sick of each other, even after being roommates the last three semesters. That includes mostly taking all the classes in their common major together.

“I really love PFW, mostly because of the small classes, so we know our entire major in all of the grades,” Nord said. “It’s kind of like a little family there.”

As Downs said, “When I toured PFW and heard that their class sizes are small like high school, and even smaller for that major, I was very happy and knew this was the college I wanted to attend.”

Downs also loved the apartments in Student Housing on the Waterfield Campus, especially her roommate the last two years.

“It means the world to me that I found a person I can do anything with, whether that be cooking, playing games, studying, and especially living with,” Downs said. “She is the one person I know I can talk to about anything, which is very important for me living away from home. I’m glad that I have a best friend here and it is just so much cooler to have a best friend that shares all the similarities that we have.”

Because their birthdays usually occur during winter break, the guys take them out to eat together once school resumes. The gals make sure they each get the birthday dessert, and buy each other a gift.

Because Nord plans on studying speech pathology, and Downs wants to become a hearing aid specialist in pediatrics, they’ll likely end up a different graduate schools, ending their status as roommates.

“With both of us graduating soon, it will definitely be sad knowing that the Mack and Kenzie era is over,” Nord said, “but we both know that we will be friends forever.”