Elizabeth Smart

I depended them for food.

I mean...

When they first started, I mean, I was 14 when they kidnapped me.

I'd never drank alcohol in my life.

When they first started bringing alcohol back into the camp, they would withhold food from me until I drank what they told me to drink.

I mean, and I remember like as silly as it sounds, you know, I went through the DARE program in fifth grade and we'd all made our fifth grade pledge not to abuse drugs or alcohol.

And in my mind, I was like, I'm breaking my pledge, which...

Like at that point, it was just silly.

Like who cares about that?

But I mean, still at that point in time, it was like, it just felt like I couldn't keep any, I couldn't keep any pledge or any promise to anyone or to myself.

And that if I wanted to survive, I just, I just had to be willing to just honestly let go of who I was and do what they wanted because otherwise I wasn't going to make it.

And one thing that I don't think anyone who's not in a situation like that can understand is this like instinct for survival.

I feel like I've heard so many people say like, you know, if that were to happen to me, like I would, I'd rather be dead.

But like, was there something that kicked in with you that was like, no matter if this is like my hell on earth, like I need to stay alive?

Well, going back to kind of what I was saying earlier, it was my parents' love for me.

I mean, even if nobody else ever...

accepted me or loved me.

I knew that they did.

And for me, that was enough.

And so that's why I feel like the human spirit is so resilient.