DR. WALLACE: I have a twin brother who's nothing like me! I'm neat and tidy, and he's a messy brute. We are both now 15, and we've had to share a room for all of our lives because we have five children in our family.

The good news is my oldest sister is moving off to college this upcoming fall, and for the first time in our lives we twins will be able to separate rooms and do our own thing. My problem is that my twin brother is already telling me that I'll miss having him in the room and that I better help him clean up his new "solo" room this fall or else he'll spread nasty rumors about me at our school. Over the years growing up with him, I've experienced him trying to "leverage" me several times, but he's never threatened to spread false rumors about me before.

For years, I've been the one to keep our room clean, and I think he is now trying to preemptively rope me into doing the cleaning of both of our rooms come this fall. How can I get my twin to not spread false rumors about me? I'm asking that question of you because I have already made up my mind that I'm not going to clean one inch of his solo room ever. I've spent a decade picking up after him and enough is enough. — The Tidy Twin, via email

THE TIDY TWIN: There is indeed a way to get your brother not to spread nasty rumors about you at your school. When the time comes and your sister moves out, simply approach your parents and share his little attempt at extortion with them, word for word. What you call leverage, I call extortion. Tell your parents exactly what you've told me; you've been cleaning up his messes for years and years and are looking forward to simply taking care of your own room going forward.

Do this immediately when your sister moves out so that your parents can monitor his room independently of yours, and so that your parents can ensure that your brother will also drop his ill-advised extortion attempts as well.

I LOVE HIM SO MUCH BUT WORRY ABOUT OUR CULTURES

DR. WALLACE: I'm 19 and thinking about getting engaged to my boyfriend. He's a great guy and he's also very open to a long-term future with me. By this I mean that he's told me for a long while now that he'd like us to become a "permanent couple" so that we can make future life plans together.

I've been enjoying taking our relationship day by day and week by week, but in the back of my mind I've always known that I would eventually do some deeper thinking about our future. Well, recently, I've been doing this thinking, and I do now agree with him that we'd be great together for the long run. (He hasn't formally asked me to marry him, but he has indicated this in many ways multiple times during our relationship.)

But now, even though we are on the same page and on solid footing together, I'm having reservations about our potential future together for a different reason. This is because we are both from different cultures, and in fact, our respective home countries don't exactly get along well with each other in general. I've found myself projecting our life together forward in time, and this makes me think that we may run into obstacles with extended family members and even other members of our extended communities.

Do you feel I should follow my heart here, or take a pause and carefully consider the blowback we might both eventually experience due to our union if we do stay together? — I Love Him So Much, via email

I LOVE HIM SO MUCH: I advise you to follow your heart and to view your pending union positively, not negatively. You will no doubt over time set a good example for members of each of your communities and demonstrate that human beings of all cultures are capable of getting along well and living in harmony with any person from any other culture.

Our world needs more couples like the two of you, not fewer. Realize and remember that anyone who does not approve of your union is both on the wrong side of this issue and is putting their own personal prejudices ahead of your happiness.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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