From SGI USA, I'm Cassidy Bradford and this is bootability. The weekly series where I talk

with Buddhists from all walks of life about the power we each have to change our lives

and the world around us. When things get difficult, what do you do?

Are you someone that slinks away into the darkness hoping that nobody will notice?

Maybe you lean on your favorite form of escapism.

My latest has been video games.

I hate to break it to you, but when we avoid things, they don't actually go away.

Buddhism teaches that it's through facing our problems head on that we can overcome them.

Today's guest, Markell Holiday, had a habit of running away.

Through his Buddhist practice, though,

he became empowered to take full responsibility for his life. Through this, he transformed everything, especially his relationships. Markell, welcome to Budability.

Thank you for joining me on this Friday, late afternoon, not quite evening yet.

To start things off, you can just introduce yourself, so tell me a little bit about who you are right now,

but also, you know, maybe the story of how you started practicing Buddhism a little bit about

your childhood. Yes. Thank you so much, Cassie. So my name is Markell Holiday. I go by Kell.

Oh, I didn't know that. I love that. Yes. So I go by Kel. My actually entertainment name is

Kel Malice. Yeah, so I'm just turned 30 years old. I live here in Atlanta, Georgia. I love

living here. And, you know, it's so the culture. I love the culture here in Atlanta.

It just speaks to me as well as just the LGBTQ life out here.

It's just amazing.

But other than that, though, I think like one of the main things, I really started,

so I was born into the practice, right?

...