By Breaking Celebrity News Staff

Elizabeth Smart spoke candidly on Friday about how she felt after she was kidnapped at age 14, and repeatedly raped.

Smart, now 24, was the guest speaker at the Law Day Luncheon sponsored by the Palm Beach County Bar Association in Florida, where she received two standing ovations from an audience of 200.

"I'll never forget how that made me feel, how dirty and filthy and worthless," she told the assembled throng at the West Palm Beach Marriott Hotel. 

"I lost all my self-worth in a matter of seconds. I thought, 'How could anyone love me again, how could my family accept me back?' I thought, 'It would be better if he just killed me,'" she told the awestruck audience.

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Then she described how she remembered what her mother had told her one day after school when she cried because a popular girl had bullied her, which at that point was the worst experience of her young life.

"She said she'd always love me," said Smart. "In that moment I decided to do everything in my power to be reunited with my family."

She added that her mother also inspired her to move on after her ordeal:  "The morning after I came home my mother said, 'This man has taken nine months of your life. Don't give him another minute. The best punishment for him is for you to be happy and follow your dreams.' "