Smart begins the Q and A section of her speech.
“You always have the choice to decide how something affects you.”
These words have led Elizabeth Smart through life since her mother said them to her over 10 years ago.
Smart spoke to over 500 students in Olscamp Hall at Bowling Green State University on Tuesday.
She spoke about what it was like to deal with her kidnapping and how a person can move on after such a tragedy.
Those in attendance sat attentively and listened as Smart delivered her message of hope.
“We all need a happy ending, need hope…if something does happen, its not your fault, it doesn’t change your value or worth. Sharing your story is the best thing you can do,” she said.
Smart was kidnapped when she was 14 years old, from her Salt Lake City home June 5, 2002. She was held captive for nine months, being raped and mistreated at the whims of her captors, until she was found in nearby Sandy, UT March 12, 2003.
The experience was a traumatic one for Smart, who said, “I’ll never forget how I felt. How filthy, dirty, unworthy, and who would want me now? They wouldn’t want me back.”
However, she made it through her captivity and now shares her story with the hope of helping others who have experienced events similar to hers and preventing these type of atrocities from happening.
The Bowling Green University Library chose Smart to speak for their inaugural, “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Stories” lecture series.
“I think the most interesting part of her story is that she has made peace with what happened to her and moved on to become a survivor and advocate,” Kari Johnson, library representative, said.
Johnson said the library chose Smart because they wanted someone with a great story to tell and a written book.
Smart recently published her new book, “My Story” in October, where she gives details about the events of her captivity and her experiences of overcoming her situation.
Aside from her book, Smart has also been involved in activism work since her captivity.
Smart has spoken at Congress after the passing of the Adam Walsh Act, which is our current system for registration of sexual offenders.
She started her own foundation in 2011, The Elizabeth Smart Foundation, which was founded to stop crimes against children. It is a great place to find out what you can do to help.
More information and stories on Elizabeth Smart, her kidnapping and her speech at Bowling Green is available from other students.
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- Smart beings her speech and the room falls utterly silent, the audience hanging on her words.
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- The memoir Elizabeth Smart wrote about her kidnapping, released in October.
Audience Reactions
“It was a powerful story. What she went through was insane, ” senior Joey Kujawski said.
Kujawski said he heard about the speech in a class and that piqued his interest to attend.
Alyssa Harper, an early childhood education major, said, “If I had ever been through something like that, I would not be able to get up and talk about it so freely.”
Smart Revisits her captivity site
At the age of 14, Elizabeth Smart was forced out of her home at knife-point in Salt Lake City, Utah. Elizabeth was kidnapped for nine months in the mountains behind her house. Elizabeth, now 25, opens up in an interview on the Today Show about where she was in the woods and what she had to do.
http://youtu.be/RCwMBqiGXaQ
The Rationale Behind the Novel
Not only does she open up about the things that had happened to her while she was kidnapped, but she also reveals to the world her view of her experience by writing her memoir, “My Story.” In this interview, Smart talks about the reasons why she decided to write a memoir and her struggles writing the book.
Leading Up To Today