My Story

by Elizabeth Smart

When faced with pain and evil, we have to make a choice. We can choose to be taken by the evil. Or we can try to embrace the good.

Brian David Mitchell is not insane. The professional analysis is clear. He is a manipulative, antisocial, and narcissistic pedophile. He is not clinically psychotic or delusional. He is just an evil man.

“Elizabeth, what this man has done is terrible. There aren’t any words that are strong enough to describe how wicked and evil he is! He has taken nine months of your life that you will never get back again. But the best punishment you could ever give him is to be happy. To move forward with your life. To do exactly what you want.

But ultimately, to get better, I simply made a choice. Life is a journey for us all. We all face trials. We all have ups and downs. All of us are human. But we are also the masters of our fate. We are the ones who decide how we are going to react to life.

“We mustn’t ever feel sorry for ourselves, because no matter how bad things are, they can always get worse!”

every day, we make choices. And when we’re faced with struggles, we have a choice to make: Either we surrender to our problems and give up, or we decide to keep moving forward no matter what. I’m not at all suggesting that once you make the choice to move forward, your problems disappear, but making that choice is the first step down that path.

“Are you going to let insert bully’s name here choose your happiness?”