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.

The past is the past. Whether we like it or not, we can't change what's happened.

Fortunately, Buddhism teaches us that we can redefine what it means to us.

Something that once felt like our biggest failure can turn into our greatest turning point.

Maybe a painful heartbreak was actually what

we needed to see ourselves clearly and become a better partner. But the heartbreak in and of itself

won't actually help us unless we actively work to use it to our benefit. In the case of today's

guest, being overcome by imposter syndrome eventually helped him gain confidence and a sense of self independent of his achievements.

Jesse Thompson of Columbus, Indiana, grew up chanting Namyo Hōden Ge'i Kyo, and he hit a difficult period in college when things didn't go as he'd planned.

We'll talk about how he uses his Buddhist practice to define his future on his own terms.

Welcome, Jesse.

Thank you so much for joining the podcast.

Thank you so much for having me.

Yeah, yeah.

This is really, I don't know, it's been really great being able to, like, chat with you a little bit before.

And like, I think that your experience is really relatable for a lot of young people.

So I'm excited to, like, yeah, hear more of your story.

So just to, like, get things started, we can have an introduction. So you can just tell me a little bit about yourself and your life growing up.

Sure. Yeah. So hey everybody. Thanks so much Cassidy for having me. My name is Jesse Thompson. So I kind of moved around, but right now I'm in southern Indiana in a little town called Columbus.

Originally kind of grew up in Chicago suburbs. I lived with my family in Japan. That's where I was born, but mostly grew up in the United States. Oh. Kind of bounced around a bit. I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I got introduced to this practice because I was born into it. So in my mom's side of the family, like my grandmother

practices, my great-grandmother practice. So I kind of really grew up with this big Buddhist

community, with this, you know, chanting Nami Horengi Kyo, like just all my life. But I think

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