Title:
Twinning is Winning! | Celebrating Sisterhood

Subtitle:
A Special Sibling Birthday Episode and Interview

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.

Let’s go! Welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia. I’m Alycia, and it’s my birthday week, but it’s not extra special because it’s my birthday. It’s extra special because it’s my twin sister Regina’s birthday.

The other half of me, I was so lucky to be born with my best friend.

So, this year we’re not together on our birthday, which is not the norm, but every once in a while, we give our families a little reprieve and do a little something individually. So, we thought we would celebrate our birthday on the podcast.

And give you some of our reflections and talk about our journey as twins. Regina, welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia. I’m so happy you’re here.

Do you want to welcome our special Hostess with the mostest guests, too? That’s going to be interviewing us so I can kick my feet up and enjoy my birthday celebration.

Regina Weinstein: I do. I do. I would love to do that. Our special guest. Guest who will be moderating and leading our conversation today is the beautiful and successful and professional and fun baby sister Corinna. Thank you for carving time in your day. We know that it’s very valuable and we appreciate it.

Corinna Busciglio: Thank you. Pushing forward with Alycia, Regina and Corinna. Today’s theme for this birthday episode is twinning is winning, and so our questions will really be focused on you two growing up special bonds of twins, funny things that you can remember about each other and so on and so forth, yes.

Alycia Anderson: Take it away. I’m. Going to try not to take control.

Corinna Busciglio: Totally agree. So to kick things off on this fun twin episode. What has been your favorite birthday celebration together ever?

Regina Weinstein: So there’s been many because we typically do spend our birthdays together and typically it’s celebratory, that being two versus one, it just creates the larger event. But I have to say whatever most memorable birthdays, and I think it’s probably because one of the things that Alycia mentions a lot on repeat, sort of in regards to her birthday. Is the whole idea and concept of a surprise party.

And when we were 18 years old, our very best friend in high school, Candy Bowman at the time, and her amazing mom surprised Alycia and I with an 18th birthday party.

And it wasn’t just like a mini party. It was like this full extravaganza. All the people, all the friends, all the spirits and things that go into a celebratory party for a double duo 18 year old birthday extravaganza, and I just have such a strong memory of walking in and having that moment together of wow all the people we love are here and they literally got us on this one. We had no idea, so that was a fun scenario.

Alycia Anderson: I love that moment. I remember how that moment felt too, and that was literally the only surprise party I’ve ever been thrown in my entire life.

Corinna Busciglio: OK, so here’s a funny one been doing research on twins, there was a lot of questions around switching places and tricking people.

Have you ever experienced this in your Twindom?

Alycia Anderson: So, it was always kind of hard for us to do the switcheroo just because, well, Regina can she’s ambulatory and can walk and I am a wheelchair user.

A story that comes to mind is Regina and I worked at Chevy’s Mexican restaurant for years together. Going through college, I was a waitress. She was a bartender, and this particular restaurant that we worked at there was like a lunch shift that I was working and Regina was off that day.

And I had to go serve some food into the bar where Regina’s regulars would commune. And I went to go drop off a plate of food to one of her regulars, and he’s his face turned white. He looked like he saw a ghost. And he looked at me and he said, oh, my God, what happened to you?

So, he thought Regina had some type of an accident or something happened and she was now the wheelchair user.

Regina Weinstein: Very strong one. Now, I mean, I’ve had… we’ve had similar switcharoos, definitely the voice confusion that comes into play quite a bit. I would say the most recent for me would be Alycia takes care of our daughter often. She’s like fill-in Mommy for sure for our daughter, Ella.

And, I was on vacation with my husband and Alycia was in full Mommy mode. Detail drop off, pick up all the things that go into maintaining someone else’s schedule. That’s only six, and she picked her up at the after-school care program and took her home. And when I returned the following Monday to pick up at the after-school care program, I had three to four young children run up to me. Asking me where my wheelchair was so. Though they have seen me in there a million times prior, the memorable moment was the wheelchair entering and then the confusion was where the wheelchair went.

Corinna Busciglio: Moving on, we have a two-parter here. What is your favorite part about being twins and what is the hardest part about being twins?

Alycia Anderson: My favorite part about being a twin is that. I always have…I’m never alone. I mean navigating lifes, trials and tribulations and especially, probably with a disability. I’ve never felt like I’m tackling giant tasks alone.

So, I think it’s given me a lot of confidence in my space to overcome and achieve things that might be a little bit harder for another kid with a disability.

I always say that Regina’s been my like secret weapon, my… my internal ally that’s always been advocating for me to be right beside her, no matter what. And it’s very inherent in both of us to make sure the other one is shoulder to shoulder. So we’re not leaving one behind.

So, I think just having your best friend with you all of the time has been absolutely my favorite thing.

Corinna Busciglio: Reg.

Regina Weinstein: My favorite part of being a twin brings me back to the womb, and now that I am an adult brings me back to any opportunity that Alycia and I are traveling together without our spouses. Whether there’s two beds in the room or not, we go right back to the womb, lay in bed, snuggle, hold each other’s hand and arm, and literally go back to that same comforting position.

I don’t know… it’s… I don’t know how else to say it, but we’ve done this our whole life, and I think the hardest part of being a twin is that. Alycia and Marty live about two hours and 35 minutes away from me, which creates an unwanted distance.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah. I agree.

Regina Weinstein: Definitely like an emotional connection, you can’t really describe it. But you do have this sense of how that person is feeling, whether it’s happy, sad, tired, stressed. You know, there’s definitely something internal that it almost feels like you’re having those emotions yourself, even though it’s not you.

We… Alycia and I’ve had experiences where we’re having one of these telepathic conversations nonverbal by looking at each other and comforting each other by just a glimpse, literally a facial expression, and we’re having a communication stream that… 100% nonverbal… that people have actually commented on and interrupted at times because it is a little bit odd.

Alycia Anderson: Like one egg split into two, we often say like you’re the able bodied half of me and I’m the disabled half of you. And we literally like our cells split for each of us to be created. I kind of think our twin language is like our own, like innovation of closed caption. Like in a different way. That’s how we communicate.

Let’s take a quick break. You’re listening to Pushing Forward with Alycia.

[pause]

Alycia Anderson: Welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia. I’m Alycia and it’s my birthday week. It’s extra special because it’s my twin sister Regina’s birthday. The other half of me. This year we’re not together on our birthday, which is not the norm. But every once in a while, we give our families a little reprieve. And do a little. Something individually, so we thought we would celebrate our birthday on the podcast.

Corinna Busciglio: Who wants to talk first about the funniest memory you have together, which is hard cuz. You have a lot together.

Alycia Anderson: There is a lot of memories together and I like, I think overall the theme is we have a lot of like small moments of belly laughing, you know, of stupid things that probably most people wouldn’t get.

So, a funny story that comes to mind when you ask this question is. When we were little, one of our mom’s best friends told us that they were driving to the beach or something, and Reggie and I were in the back of the car wearing our bathing suits and getting ready to go to the beach and we were in wearing sunglasses and one of the twins had sunglasses with one of the lens missing. So there was one lens on and one lens off.

And the moms would look back and kind of giggle and thought it was cute. And they looked back and the other twin popped out one lens out of her sunglasses. So they both had a pair of sunglasses with one lens in and one lens out. So I thought that was kind of a cute, funny story.

Regina Weinstein: I want to mention another just fun memory. It’s not funny, but it’s fun. We were in Southern California at Corona Del Mar Beach, which is super beautiful. And a lot of us have spent a lot of our life, you know, helping Alycia get from point A to point B across sand, and in these difficult environments and like, how do we help get her where we’re going so that she can also be part of this experience.

And we went to Corona Del Mar Beach to celebrate life with two of our very best friends, we want to have this beautiful breakfast to celebrate life together. And as we were leaving, we noticed that Corona Del Mar Beach offered these really awesome though a little bit medical looking wheelchairs that had the Big beach wheels on it.

I was like Oh my God. Like we’re doing that. And Alycia said I’m not doing. That you know. I’m not getting that… we can’t do that. You know, I’m like, no, please, I really want to try this.

So, she got out of her, you know, her day-to-day chair jumped into the. The beach chair and it was the most freeing fun experience that I’ve had at the beach with. Alycia taking her to the water, going over the sand with ease, and then once we got down to the beach, being able to push the wheelchair, though, she’d rather be pushing it herself, pushing the wheelchair and allowing her to take a walk along a beach like it was so fun.

We couldn’t stop laughing. We were so filled with joy. And it was. Just one of those moments in life. That the. Four of us that were there together said we just experienced a first like this is a first and it wasn’t funny, but it was super fun. It was so adorable.

Alycia Anderson: That was a really great moment. That was the first time I’ve ever taken a walk down the beach where you were walking like on the water and where I could like, scoop my hand and feel the water and the wind blowing. Like the whole thing was. Like a movie almost. And to do that with my best girlfriends, like my girl group. You know, from school from when we were young.

And… how long we spent so much time on the beach. And that was the first time that I… we… the four of us, ever got to take a walk down the beach together. It was like such a perfect moment. It was amazing.

Regina Weinstein: All beaches should take the approach of Corona Del Mar and offer a accessible way for those who have a disability, temporary or permanent to have access to do exactly that because. They were just there for the taking and it was such a cool. Feature to have to inclusive feature to have at a public space, so just totally awesome.

Alycia Anderson: And you know what was even better about that too, is and another testimonial to your impact in my life as my twin sister is, that’s what you’ve done my entire life. Is making sure that I’m experiencing the same thing that you are. And I was resistant towards this chair because I couldn’t push it on my own.

And it took there was an element of it that took my independence away. But that was all stripped away when the like wheels hit the water and. And the wind started blowing in my hair and I had my besties around me, so it was. I mean, you spun me around in circles like you were dancing. It was amazing.

Regina Weinstein: And then another photo shoot in that thing. So just it was awesome.

Corinna Busciglio: As we are coming to the end of our time together on Pushing Forward with Alycia, Regina and Corinna. If you could describe your twin in three words, what would it be?

Alycia Anderson: I would say that my twin is the most selfless and kind person that I know. She consistently will go out of her way to help others, and she really puts everyone before her. Her heart is filled with love and she’s extremely loving, but she’s also very lovable because of it.

So it’s really nice. And then I think that she’s also equally determined and to chase her goals and has a dedication to just performing and having some results, whether it’s at work or goals within her family structure and all of that.

I feel incredibly lucky to share my entire life with such a remarkable, beautiful human happy birthday.

Regina Weinstein: It’s like looking in the mirror, right?. The things that I think about with my twin, the first thing I always think about is strength. Alycia has had to overcome more than any human being. I know she has had to work that much harder at succeeding winning. And just owning all of it. So the strength piece of it is the words can’t explain it.

I also see Alycia as a very successful person and I think success is something that she’s always been very determined to own and control and succeed at just watching the business grow. Watching the podcast come to life.

She’s exuded success in her life and that is such a strong quality for any woman, but a disabled woman at the top of the freaking list.

Third, I would say that and these could go in any order, which is very loving and I couldn’t live without that true genuine support of just kindness and like intention of always doing what’s best for me versus her. I think she brings in the family values though we all do. She brings it in from the core. She like digs a little bit deeper than I know that I do.

I just think Alycia, for whatever reason pulls like the granny piece of it. The Papa piece of it. The Auntt Mary piece of it, she just like, keeps those things alive. Through love. Yeah. So I would say those are my.

Alycia Anderson: Tradition.

Regina Weinstein: Top three, though there’s many more.

Corinna Busciglio: I think Regina is truly one of the most beautiful people inside and out I’ve ever met. I know I’m biased, but Regina has a heart of gold. Yeah, and Alycia is one of the strongest people I’ve had the pleasure to surround myself with because you push forward, no pun intended, with such grace and resilience. Through Alycia, you never get to give a pushing forward moment. But since you are guest today. You go first.

Alycia Anderson: I think my pushing forward moment from my twin perspective can look different depending on where I have been in my life, but today it is a moment for me to remember where I’ve come from. And cherish the one. Who has always literally been there to love and protect, advocate for, and just be my friend. And even in the hardest of times.

And I’m super, super grateful for that so. For me, I just need to remember all of that love and support that I have gotten. I need and she deserves and those in my life deserve all of that right back.

Regina Weinstein: My pushing forward moment, pushing forward moment that I’ve been thinking of honestly since yesterday after having a kind of like a important conversation with a friend, is that. Your body feels so good when you smile, even if you don’t want to smile and you’re having a terrible moment if you just stop and allow yourself to try to smile, your whole body responds from that and to that.

And every day we drop our daughter off at school, we say happy smiles all day, no matter what. As long as, you just like, try your hardest to turn the frown upside down as they say. And really do it, it does help.

Corinna Busciglio: Oh, it’s so beautiful. I’m going to start saying that to Theo. I told Theo this is not my pushing forward moment, but it’s a great day to have a great day.

Alycia Anderson: Oh, that’s a great pushing for a moment.

Corinna Busciglio: But that is not my pushing forward moment.

Alycia Anderson: Do you have one?

Corinna Busciglio: My pushing forward moment comes from the realization that despite any challenges you might face, you’re never truly alone because you have the support and companionship of your siblings. This is a bond that really helps keep us moving in sometimes the darkest of days, or the best of the best days.

And so, knowing that you always have someone to lean on has been one of my life’s greatest treasures.

Alycia Anderson: Oh. We love you sissy.

Corinna Busciglio: Thanks. Alright well that brings us to the end of this incredible twinning episode.

I’m Corinna.

Regina Weinstein: I’m Regina.

Alycia Anderson: I’m Alycia.

Corinna Busciglio: This is Pushing Forward with the Busciglio sisters.

Alycia Anderson, Regina Weinstein & Corinna Busciglio: And, that is how we roll.