Elizabeth Smart Motivates in Bellevue

By Rachel Belle

Listen to Feature: Elizabeth Smart Speaks of Survival Bellevue

Nine years ago, when she was 14 years old, Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped by a man who immediately forced her into a polygamist marriage and repeatedly raped and drugged her, sometimes several times a day. Nine months later, she was finally found and brought back home to her family in Salt Lake City.

On Tuesday, now 24 years old, Smart was in Bellevue, speaking to a thousand people at a fundraiser for Youth Eastside Services.

Elizabeth Smart’s recovery is incredibly inspirational and she told me how she managed to overcome such a terrible, traumatic experience.

“When I came home, my mom told me, it was the best piece of advice and I share it with everyone I meet, she said ‘Elizabeth, what this man has done to you is terrible. There aren’t words strong enough to describe how wicked and evil he is. He has taken nine months of your life that you’ll never get back. But don’t give him anymore of your life. The best punishment you can give him is to be happy.’ So ever since that day I have tried to be happy.”

She’s a very happy newlywed right now. Smart recently married a 22 year old Scottish guy she met on her Mormon mission in Paris last year. She proves that she’s able to have a healthy relationship with a man, even after the sexual abuse she suffered.

“I am a girly girl, and as a little girl I always wanted to get married. So then, when I was kidnapped, and I was told that I was this man’s new wife, that I was lucky to be where I was, that never made sense. My parents told me that they loved me and they really showed me that they loved me. These people told me that they loved me, but through abuse and rape and drugs and neglect, those actions didn’t support what they were saying. I knew that it wasn’t true and I knew that it wasn’t right. When I came home, everything that had been taken from me: my family, my life, my identity, really everything, was given back. I wanted to make sure that I lived my life, that I took everything back, that I didn’t let him steal anything from me. Certainly marriage was one of those things.”

She says she’s gotten where she is today because of her family, her faith in God, counseling and activities like horse back riding.

“Something that I’ve always tried to do, if I’ve been having a hard time, is make goals every day. Whether it’s just to get up and get out of bed and get dressed for the day or flying out to Seattle and coming and speaking. When you make small goals, eventually those lead to big goals, and you go along and you accomplish them and that helps you feel good about yourself and you’re able to do more and more and more.”

Elizabeth and her dad started the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, and she travels the country speaking and doing child advocacy work. But her goals were very different before she was kidnapped at knife point from her bedroom, while her little sister looked on.

“Before I was ever kidnapped and before I ever, I guess, saw the world, I used to want to go to BYU and study harp. Then I wanted to go to Juilliard in New York and get a masters degree. Then I wanted to come back home and teach harp and be married and have a lot of kids and be very happy.”

Well, three out of five isn’t bad, and she still plays the harp.

Elizabeth’s story is one to keep in the back of your mind, when you’re having a bad day or a bad year. To help put things into perspective. She hopes that her story can help others to overcome the difficult things in their lives.

“For as much bad as there seems to be in the world, there is that much more good. We just don’t hear about it and should never give up hope. Miracles do happen all the time. Certainly I feel like my life has been a living representation of that.”