Being in the dark, there's a real weight to it. It's heavy.

After being in captivity for so long, I can't begin to describe how wonderful it feels to be home in Canada.

I am so proud to be a Canadian.

I think it's the human spirit inside of all of us that has an enormous capacity to survive.

The same men who are placing all these outrageous restrictions on women’s freedoms in southern Somalia – that type of mentality – that’s what I had to deal with in captivity.

Because that’s the thing about the exact moment when you get somewhere that has required effort: There’s a freeze-frame instant of total fulfillment, when every expectation has been met and the world is perfect.

I've realized that the world is, in essence, full of banana peels - loaded with things that may unwittingly trip an internal wire in my mind, opening a floodgate of fears without warning.