Title:
The Strength of Sisterhood 💪 | Meet Corinna, the younger sister ❤️
Subtitle:
Alycia and Corinna’s Story of Sisterhood
Transcript:
Alycia Anderson: Welcome to pushing forward with Alycia. A podcast that gives disability a voice. Each week we will explore topics like confidence, ambition, resilience and finding success against all odds. We are creating a collective community that believes that all things are possible for all people.
Open hearts. Clear paths. Let’s go.
Welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia. I’m Alycia. This is our podcast where we’re exploring all kinds of cool topics together. And today’s special… I’ve got a very special guest. And I’m so excited to introduce you to my baby sister, my younger sister. I actually have another sister, she’s always saying how I only talk about my twin.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: So the other sister, Corinna.
Alycia Anderson: She’s getting the spotlight today. She sent me this report that she did on me, she wrote on. Me. Gosh, what? How old were you when you did that is.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: He probably 6th grade 6th grade.
Alycia Anderson: Yeah, she was in 6th grade. I was like. 26 or something like that. Anyway, she sent me this. Awesome report that she wrote on me years ago. We read through it together and we’re having all these, like, great memories about that moment in time when she interviewed me and we were talking about how it was kind of interesting that the content back then and the things that I was saying about sort of advocacy and the path of disability. Inclusion and just kind of my life and trying to fit in. And it’s still the same, huh? So, see, like.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Definitely you had some very good points similar to what you weave into your message today and. It was incredible. One of the I I got to interview you, which was very fun and actually thinking about it, I think I was in 8th grade. So I don’t want to age you. Too much you can age.
Alycia Anderson: That’s OK. Me at this point, 26 is young, so let’s be.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Right. But I asked you the things that you wanted to accomplish in your life, and it is really special to read that today. We read it just before we started recording and to. See that you. Gone married had an incredible career, multiple careers into your next career moment, bought multiple houses, had multiple dogs. The dogs could not forget. The dogs lived a very full life and accomplished. And still accomplishing the things that you. Wanted to, as a young woman and that is like, so special to look back on. Like, I can’t even believe I found this report.
Alycia Anderson: You know, it’s even more special is that at that young of an age, you were already kind of like interested in telling the story of disability and sharing that with your classmates in kind of a bold way. So. I think that says a lot to the normalization of it. That was probably in. Our household and I don’t know, maybe. You could talk.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: About how like.
Alycia Anderson: What was the comparison between like having two sisters that are twins, one able bodied and one with a disability? And like how?
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Was that for you? Yeah. So I. Think having a sister with a disability really opened my eyes early in life to everybody is different and everybody has unique qualities that make them special and not, I mean not to quote you but uniquely abled to succeed in life. I really, really look toward our dad, who always set the tone. He treated us. All the same. There was no special specialties given to anyone waking up in the morning and seeing you climbing on top of the kitchen counter. Putting dishes away was like very common and normal. He he was truly just like get in there. Girl and and you know in a lot of ways like, you know, some things maybe he should have been a little softer on but I think. That for me just. Having the inclusion of like always. Considering you as who you are has really helped. Me in my life. Even as I’ve aged into an adult and.
Alycia Anderson: Do you remember? Like any certain time where the disability was like, oh, something that was obviously different? Or do you think that it was like always? Kind of just natural for you. Cause like I think about the kids and the family. Now your your. Adorable son and Regina and Nick Nick’s our brother. Who?
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: The other brother Spoiler also. Bye, nick. I love you. Oh, gosh, let. Me. Say it first.
Alycia Anderson: They’re like such this innocent age right now where they don’t see my. I know they really don’t see my disability in their in that that like 5:00-ish range where I I think it’s it’s going to start. Do you remember any specific time for you that it was ever like. Different or.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: I think I was always just very sensitive to others making you uncomfortable and almost a like very protective way. I didn’t. How people would look and stare at you, it really, really upset me so much to this day when we’re out and about, of course, people will still stare, but I think that’s something that. Really, really, always upset me. Why? Because I just. I I I just didn’t. I don’t. I I. And maybe looking back, it was. Are they judging you? Are they? They see you and they instantly make a snap judgment about your life. When your lifes amazing, they know nothing about you and. The staring and the attention I just, I just never enjoyed it and never liked it and. I to this day when I see someone in a wheelchair and I’m with my son like it’s so great to be like, oh, it’s like Auntie Alycia is and he and Uncle Marty and he’ll, like, go right over and say hi and. Just just it be. Inclusive is like the name of the game for me. And I think growing up with you really made me extra alert to that.
Alycia Anderson: And I think that’s probably how. I guess the realization of like how it was kind of like normalized in our household because we grew up together. But from a society perspective, there’s, you know, probably a good amount of people that haven’t been exposed to a wheelchair or a specific type of disability that might be different and. Because of abelism in our society, we’re kind of taught that disability is something that needs to be fixed or it’s bad, and so people are afraid to, like, talk about it and share and.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Ask see people for people. There you go, you again.
Alycia Anderson: I’ve caught.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: You with me? I like it.
Alycia Anderson: Our relationship has just always been very like fluid. I don’t remember a time where I ever felt like you looked at me like the disabled sister or anything. Thing at all, like, not even once ever. So hopefully the kids stay that way too, you know, because it’s such a beautiful, freeing thing for me right now. For the little ones to, like, walk up and, like, grab onto my wheel. And say ohh your wheels, you’re.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: So beautiful and be very.
Alycia Anderson: Yeah, it’s like. Genuine with their the way they think. And love me for all of me, even my disability, as part of who I am.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: So you know my son who loves like things that go with wheels. So you know, like he is like, Oh my God. Like with the this wheelchair. Like he thinks it’s the coolest. Thing ever and so. Hopefully we just. Continue down that path of acceptance from a young age.
Alycia Anderson: So, and hopefully teach their friends and talk about it and normalize it in their own circles and kind of like drive home that allyship of, like, taking what they know and spreading it around and.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: In fact, like even you know, growing up be like, oh, yeah, like my sister’s in. A wheelchair and she, like, goes skiing. You know like. She drives a car like she does all the things I think in my own way, just breaking down stigmas of. These, like, really ingrained stigmas. I think I’ve just always, like, been on game to do that because I just want people to treat you like, you know how Regina is treated and I’m treated and Nick is treated, you know, that was like never a question.
Alycia Anderson: Shall we call that the work of disabling ableism?
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: We shall, I don’t know.
Alycia Anderson: Do you want to share with? The audience a little bit about who you are and like what?
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: You do. And again my name is Corinna, the other sister. I am a director of Strategic communications for a technology company in Phoenix. I have a beautiful son and husband I love. Passion cooking. I love being with my family and just enjoying, you know, life as much as possible. Cool. I love marketing and communications and social media, and I love partnering with my sister as much as possible on her venture.
Alycia Anderson: Her side hustle for marketing with the Alycia Anderson Company creating our amazing logo and all the cool stuff that you’ve been doing. Or the company over the.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Last couple of years at this point, which is pretty great, yeah. And like Mr. said, my mom came along after her mom passed away. And that. Is also why there’s such a big age gap between my siblings and I and my mom and our dad were married for about like 16 years or so. And we, you know, they split up when I was just a baby and we. Somehow, because family is always so important to us. We always remained close and spent a lot of time together growing up and. I feel like for living in a different state, we didn’t skip a.
Alycia Anderson: Beat this is a perfect time to take a quick break. You were listening. To pushing forward with Alycia and we will be right back. Welcome back to pushing forward with Alycia. I’m Alycia, very special guest. And I’m so excited to introduce you to my baby sister, my younger sister.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: The other sister, Corinna, talk about.
Alycia Anderson: How we grew up and.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Yeah, I always loved it. That my sisters were. Old enough where if something really bad happened that I couldn’t tell my mom or dad, I could tell them, and then they would say no, no, no, no, no. Don’t tell that or. Yeah, you need to tell them. That so they. Always my sounding board, which is amazing, but. So I would. Spend every summer with my dad and every other holiday like for. 18 years so.
Alycia Anderson: So did we say? That our dad and your mom got divorced.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Yes. When I was little. OK. Yeah, for.
Alycia Anderson: Really little three, like 3 or.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Your three or 4/4. Yeah. So my my mom remained.
Alycia Anderson: But they were.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Close my sisters and I think that also helped our relationship because she was very supportive of our relationship together, always very supportive of it. So that was.
Alycia Anderson: The kid brothers.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Important too.
Alycia Anderson: Yeah. So Corinna. Would spend like school months in Tucson and then fly to California and spend the summer with us is basically how it went, right? Yeah. And we were really efficient and just like, kind of like accepting. That’s how we maintained. Our relationships, I don’t know as distant as we were in like geography for most of the year like we really main. Gained to be very.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Close I. Can I have, like, vivid memories of going over to your Regina’s apartment and Papa just dropping me off and leaving me for the weekend and like playing Nintendo. And, like, with all your friends and eating doughnuts in the morning when you would. Sleep in and like oh.
Alycia Anderson: My I feel like our sisterhood has been. Very important to me.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Sisterhood, womanhood, siblinghood is, you know, critical and key to I also think having the right support system. Who wants to see you succeed and builds you up or helps you? Maybe when you like, need to catch a grip? Is also important honesty.
Alycia Anderson: Can you remember, like one of those times that you want to? Share that one.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Thing that I don’t think people know about you is you’re also, well, maybe they do, but you were very impressive businesswoman. Ohh. And oftentimes back to like therapists, I feel like you’re a coach. Four, I can think of, you know, five people off the top of my head where you’ve coached them through critical times of their career. And I think just having somewhere on your side, believing in you and saying like, I see you as a director. I see you as a vice. President you. You deserve more. You’re worth more. You’ve got this. Is ask for more, ask for more. Always ask for more.
Alycia Anderson: I know when I see you grow in your confidence, your craft, your career, you’re this and you get to another level like I enjoy watching the joy in you and like the empowerment of that next step, and that just might be the competitive person and me. But I I just, I love to see that it’s really. But like I also think like the other part of my childhood was the things that I kind of did alone. Right. I see my childhood kind of like on a split screen. One side of it, it was just like, very I’m air quoting normal. The other side was the like medical stuff that I had to deal with. I felt very like. Protected and safe with my siblings specifically, you know, like even today like when we go somewhere. I mean we just did. A sister’s trip a. Few weeks ago and like I don’t worry about like if there’s going to be an accessibility problem or if I’m going to not be able to get. In a bathroom or the shower won’t work. The chair was poured open. Yeah. You know, like whether that lift is going to work or not, we’re getting into that winery. We don’t care. We’re going in. I think the beauty about growing up with with my siblings is that.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: One never knows.
Alycia Anderson: As long as. I live when we’re together like I’ve never worry about. About finding a space to be fully accepted and included, it’s really it’s. It’s really, really, really nice. It’s one of the genuine, holistic, inclusive, loving spaces that I have.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: I have like this vivid memory with you. I don’t know if you you were really even remember. But we were sitting in your room at Castle Gate and. You were missing your mom and you found her letters that she wrote you. Do you remember this? And in her letter, she said. I hope your dad move will move on and meet a woman and have more babies. And I’ve always felt a little bit of. Sadness because you know your mom, your First off, your mom passed away way too young. And you know, it always made me feel like. Wow. She knew I was coming.
Alycia Anderson: Follow me.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: She knew I was gonna be on my way. And it made me feel like connected to her in a way. And that you were sharing these, like, special, really moving letters with. Me. I’ll never for I’ll never forget it for as long as I live.
Alycia Anderson: Her passing away as soon as she did brought you into this world, and it also, which is powerful and beautiful and amazing and joyful and all of it, you know. And then like her, passing away also provided me. And this is selfish on my part. But it it provided me. Comfort. When I was alone, like going on to operating tables and having surgeries and being in the hospital one for weeks and you know, like I was never a right. Like, I think two things like Papa always taught me to not be afraid. I think that was his way to cope with having a kid with a disability like. Just go in and do it and he taught me to do that. That’s what I do. Go. Just go do it, you know, and it’s just part of life and.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Right.
Alycia Anderson: Then I always had her to lay there with, you know, like I never felt alone, even though I was alone a lot. Of it, yeah.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: I was gonna say one other thing about your mom, because I think she pops up also at, like, special times and.
Alycia Anderson: OK.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Do you remember? When we were but we were walking also our sister had like the longest labor ever. That is like another time for another story. And she can get into it if she wants. But it was very long. And Alycia and I were walking back into the hospital and. We saw a family. Do you?
Alycia Anderson: Remember. Oh yeah, I remember.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: This and we saw. A dad and a mom. Who had cancer and a little girl in a wheelchair? And.
Alycia Anderson: It was like.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Really powerful to see that when we were going rolling into ciella and.
Alycia Anderson: And the little girl was probably so my mom for anyone that’s listening that doesn’t know she passed away when I was. When my sister Regina and I were seven years old and my brother Nick was 2 from leukemia. And so when we ran into this, mom, we.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: We stopped and said hello and they were lovely and we. When we were. Going into the hospital, we were both like. Felt stunned that.
Alycia Anderson: It was almost like a glimpse of. My life, but I can’t remember right.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: It was, it was. It was. It was really something, so I think. Marsha, really? Shines on and shines bright as swiftly and in in specific moments so.
Alycia Anderson: She’s been like her impact. On my life, really, our lives, you know, she’s the one that advocated for me when I was that little girl pushing in to get care and advocated for me to be independent, advocated for me to be in tennis and advocated for me to, like, have some foundational independence before she passed away and her impact has been. Massive and she had really a very short time on Earth, but I think that’s a lesson to all of us that let’s make it count while we’re we’re here. Like, what can we do, you know? And that’s probably like in my path right now. What I’m trying to do is. Make it count while I can.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: I think you’re well on your way.
Alycia Anderson: Sis, since it’s been so fun to have you. Thank you so much for. Being a guest on pushing. Forward with Alycia. You know how we like to end the show. So this is.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Ohh I know.
Alycia Anderson: This is your moment. Do you have any advice or a mantra? A pushing forward moment that you can give down to our listeners and our community to inspire them in their lives and in their paths in some way?
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: What a great question. This is my favorite part of your podcast series, so I’ve been thinking long and hard about what my pushing forward note would be, and I’m gonna throw it back to my grandma. Addie, my mom’s mom, when I was growing up, sitting at the kitchen table, doing homework, she would always tell me. Like the little engine that could. I think I can. I think I can. She instilled in me a drive to never, ever give up, even when things were very difficult in math homework. But I really have that messaging to my core of who I am today and anytime things get hard, I just dig my heels down and. Think to myself, I think I can. I think I can. And I do.
Alycia Anderson: I love it. Dig your heels in. I think I can.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Don’t we do exactly.
Alycia Anderson: You see, this has been so fun. Thank you so much for being a. Part of this I.
Corinna Busciglio Kamilli: Love you. Thank you. I love you. Too, and thank you so much.
Alycia Anderson: To our listeners and our community that keeps growing every week, please. Help us continue. To grow it, by the way, please share the podcast like it leave a review. We appreciate all the love and you’re really helping us. Amplify the amazingness of this podcast so. Thank you to. All of our listeners who keep showing up every single week. See you next time. This is Pushing Forward with Alycia, that is how we roll on this podcast?