To many, a happy ending evokes images of a fairytale wedding, big smiles and ultimate success and peace. However, young woman had brave a dangerous and unusual storm to arrive at her happy ending.
Elizabeth Smart made an appearance at Bowling Green State University Nov. 5. Smart made headlines back in 2002 when she was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City, Utah, home and held captive for nine months. http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/04/cnn25.smart.tan/index.html?iref=allsearch
During Smart’s speech to the students, she described how at the age of 14 she was taken from the bedroom that she shared with her younger sister at knifepoint that and taken to a tent, where she was sexually and mentally tortured for nine months before she was rescued and reunited with her family. She describes both of her captors with an eerie calm.
“When I arrived at the makeshift camp, a woman with long gray hair and a long robe appeared. She wasn’t normal,” Smart said. “She hugged me, and if hugs could speak, hers said that if you make one wrong move or I don’t like something you do, then I will kill you.”
Smart then thought about what her mother has told her over the years, and that is when Smart said. Made the most important decision in her entire nine months of captivity.
“I decided that no matter what I had to do, I had to do whatever it took to survive,” Smart said “That decision saw me through a lot of pain I was feeling.”
With that, she manipulated and fought through and was finally reunited home with her family (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/13/us/utah-girl-15-is-found-alive-9-months-after-kidnapping.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm)
Upon returning home, she said she was filled with peace. “This has to be heaven, being surrounded by the people who love you the very most and knowing that nobody could hurt you now. This has to be what heaven is like,” Smart said.
Smart has written a book about her experiences titled “My Story,” and is working to prevent future crimes against children. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/elizabeth-smart-opens-kidnapping-chances-escape-article-1.1478630
“I’ve come to a point in my life where I’m not sorry that I was kidnapped, and I don’t feel sorry for myself because of what I’ve been allowed to do, people I’ve met and worked alongside, change I’ve been able to see, everything,” Smart said. “I have so much to be grateful for and going back and telling my story and writing my book, this has gone to further show me how much I have to be grateful for. My outcome is a happy ending.”