This is Let's Be Clear with Shannon Doordy.

Hello, Let's Be Clear family.

I'm Elizabeth Smart and I'm so excited and honored to be guest hosting today.

I know Let's Be Clear is all about strong women using their voices, about issues that they care about, things that

are important to them.

And so I'm just very, very honored to be included in that number.

Over the past 20 years, I have just come to really realize and recognize that every person has a story and that we are so all

interconnected and that our what we experience can have not just a huge impact on our own

lives but on the lives all around us. We will probably never ever realize the impact that each one of our

stories has on those around us. You know, I have spent the last 20 plus years in the advocacy world

in speaking out, in sharing my story of abduction and captivity and then my rescue and moving forward.

And I've had so many people approach me over the years and say things like,

I've experienced something similar, but nothing in comparison.

And when I hear those words, I am actually heartbroken because

we shouldn't be comparing ourselves to anyone. No one should be looking at my experience and then

looking at their experience and being like, well, why does she seem okay? Why, when what I went through doesn't seem to be like on the same level

of what she went through and yet I'm not okay. That is so unfair and so wrong. And if we ever

cross paths and you say that to me, we're not going to be friends because that is not okay.

At the end of the day, pain is pain and trauma is trauma. And we are all so

different. There's no way you could ever accurately compare your trauma, your story, or your

experiences to anyone else's. So I just wanted to start by saying, give yourself some grace.

Give yourself some grace.

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