From Homeless to Princeton: Rising Above Childhood Trauma
Big Time Adulting
Caitlin Murray
4.9 • 811 Ratings
🗓️ 20 December 2023
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Milano Buckley is the epitome of resilience. Born to a mentally ill homeless woman named Kat, Milano’s unstable childhood in New York City was marked by unexpected refuge by two unofficial foster parents, an African woman from Ghana and her elementary school teacher. Milano’s grit through uncertain times led her down a path of triumph over adversity. After graduating from Princeton and starting the picture-perfect family of her dreams, she thought attaining such success would free her from her past. But when she became a mother, her childhood trauma surfaced in brutal and surprising ways.
In this episode, Milano Buckley talks about her crazy upbringing and the daily hurdles of being a mom riddled with remnants of trauma. She reflects on the challenges of healing and the disconnect between her expectations of parenthood and reality. She explores the impact of trauma triggers and the importance of accepting and embracing the journey of healing. Milano and Caitlin also discuss the balance between celebrating joy and acknowledging everyday annoyances.
Milano’s favorite snack: Babybel cheese with pretzel crisps.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I really desperately wanted to be like owned by someone. |
| 0:05.4 | I wanted to be like adopted. |
| 0:07.0 | I wanted to be guardian. |
| 0:09.8 | Like I was always connected to my mother or this crazy woman because no one kind of stepped up. |
| 0:14.9 | But in the end, my being connected to her was also pretty amazing in terms of other opportunities. |
| 0:24.2 | Welcome back to the big time adulting show. |
| 0:26.5 | Today we have like a real human interest piece, if you will. |
| 0:30.2 | I have a friend here named Milano Butley. |
| 0:33.0 | She has an incredible life story. |
| 0:36.3 | I really have wanted to bring this podcast back to some more like human interest |
| 0:40.0 | stories. |
| 0:40.7 | Like it's great to have experts on and it's great to have doctors and things like that. |
| 0:45.5 | But what I really think I was set out to do when I started this podcast was to get a little |
| 0:51.1 | bit deeper with just people and have that be, you know, the way that I shared |
| 0:57.5 | long form content. So Melano, welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Caitlin. It's so awesome to be here. |
| 1:04.8 | I've been a fan of yours for, I don't know, two, three years now. Thank you for having me. |
| 1:09.8 | Yeah, this is great. So Milano's here actually at my |
| 1:12.5 | house today and we are sitting right next to each other with my microphone in between us, |
| 1:18.5 | which I've never recorded this way. So I'd love it if you would share what your life has been. |
| 1:26.2 | Absolutely. I will, you know, I had a wild and woolly childhood that was divided between |
| 1:35.1 | trauma and miracle. I'm 44 now, so I was born in 1979, and I was born in Maine to a mentally ill homeless woman. |
| 1:48.6 | Probably the first like 25, 30 years of my life. Like, I don't even think I articulated it. You know, |
... |
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