It's Real

As a 14-year-old, I had a lot of plans for how my life would turn out. At 22, I would be married, living in Edgemont, and I was going to be a teacher. I was going to be a graduate of BYU, and life was going to be perfect. For the high school freshman version of Katie Chrystler, that sounded like perfection; the “reality” I dreamed of.

On March 12, 2003, the day Elizabeth Smart was found, I think it’s fair to say the entire nation, and especially state of Utah was shocked and amazed. I remember turning on the TV that whole night, and all the news stations stayed live from about 3 that afternoon until well after their 10pm newscasts were over. It was just such a big story, and one that the whole state was so personally invested in.

Outside the police station, reporters asked Elizabeth's dad Ed how it was to have his daughter back. That day, his words expressed what a lot of us were feeling. He threw his arms in the air and exclaimed, "It's real!"

I was basically in the same stage of life as Elizabeth when she was kidnapped. We were both finishing up our 8th grade years at school, we’re both LDS, and we both lived along the Wasatch Front. Though I had never met her, when she was taken, I felt a responsibility to be extra-diligent in looking for her.



Brittany Herdman and I would go on bike rides during the summer of 2002, not specifically looking for her, but we would watch cars as they passed us, in the hopes of seeing Elizabeth in the backseat, and we would keep an eye out for her as we rode up Provo Canyon. We wanted to help find her any way we could.

When she was found, I was amazed, even though I never really thought she was dead. Call it naivety, but I just always believed that one day she would be home again.

Nearly eight years later, on December 10, 2010, Elizabeth’s kidnapper and rapist, Brian David Mitchell’s was found guilty. Again, all the news channels in Utah went live from 11am through most of the afternoon. Outside the federal courthouse, Ed spoke to reporters as he had many times since his daughter’s kidnapping and homecoming. When asked about his emotions, he echoed his statement from 2003, by proclaiming, "It's real!" in the same tone of voice as he had done so many years earlier.



For me at least, Ed’s "It's real" echoed the sentiment I experienced simultaneously outside the courthouse.

In the eight years since she returned to her family, my reality has shifted from the dreams I had as a 14-year-old.



Instead of being married, I’m single. Instead of living in the neighborhood behind Day’s Market, I live in the Avenues in Salt Lake. Instead of being a teacher, I’m a journalist.

Yesterday it hit me. Just as Elizabeth’s return and the conviction of Brian David Mitchell are the “reality” for the Smart family, my life is my “reality.”

The Smart’s “It’s real” moment came as they finally got justice. For me, the “It’s real” moment came as a took a second to stop and think about what my life has become.

I work a job that I truly love, and one that I know I was guided to. I can’t imagine any other career that would suit me so well. As a producer, I get to write, explore the state in which I live, and provide information that I believe will enrich and educate viewers.

I don’t think it would necessarily take a situation of the magnitude of Elizabeth Smart’s return and her captor’s conviction to make me see and feel what I did yesterday, but with it as a backdrop, I realized that everybody has “it’s real” moments; when we’re able to stop and reflect on the unexpected twists and turns that have made us who we are.

Those who know me know I’m a fan of the Tabernacle Choir. As I was driving home last night, I was in a very reflective mood, as I reviewed all that’s happened to me in the past eight years. I was listening to the choir's song “Let Peace Then Still the Strife.”

Though the song is meant to comfort loved ones in the wake of death, some of the song’s lyrics were especially poignant to me. They sang the words, “let mem’ry salve as Gilead’s caressing. And though the balm be spread, let tender rifts remain, that breaking hearts not yield to forgetting…”

Not that my heart was breaking, but for me at least, my memories really are the balm of Gilead in my life. I have such an amazing life, and there are so many truly wonderful people in it.

Continuing with the lyrics, the final two verses sing the praises I feel for my reality:

Then sing, beloved ones,
Reach o'er the summer sea.
Pour forth thy boundless love for us living!
Sweep into ev'ry soul,
Make music of our tears,
Turn all our songs to joy and thanksgiving!
And when we silent pass,
From far across the sea
Let praises ring for life's wond'rous blessing.

Then sing ye living souls!
Sing generations past,
Swell high the tide of life, us refreshing!
Sing forth as with one voice,
Bear silent grief away,
Resound with peace and hope everlasting!
And all who wait and sing,
Sing on from earth and heav'n
And make our crossing forth joyful passing!

My reality includes my career, friends, family and faith. Without one of those four elements, my life would not be what it is today. Though my “it’s real” moment at first just seemed to revolve around my career, as I’ve had a chance to step back and think things through, the feelings I felt yesterday also extend to my entire reality. Though things haven’t turned out as I dreamed they would, I believe they’ve been and will be better. Yesterday, I realized what a truly insurmountable debt of gratitude I owe to my Heavenly Father, the Author of my reality.

Just as I know that He blessed me with all the things I love in life, I realized that he also blessed the Smart family, and for that matter, the entire human race with the things that matter in their reality. It was a very peaceful and humbling thing for me to see that God truly has played such a crucial part in shaping my life and the lives of those around me.

For me, I can echo the words of Ed Smart. In my life, not only do I know that “It’s real,” but I can bear testimony that “He’s real” and that he truly guides my life.