Erica Pratt is the 7-year-old Southwest Philadelphia girl who was kidnapped by two men while playing in front of her grandmother's house. Erica was blindfolded with duct tape; she had her hands and feet bound, and she was left in the basement of an abandoned house in North Philadelphia, where she remained for 23 hours before freeing herself and escaping.

Erica accomplished what many of us in this room have yet to accomplish in our own lives. The first, as any survivalist will tell you, is to survive the life-threatening encounter. Whether it's a kidnapping, a hiking mishap, or a career, we must learn to survive the encounter.

Erica managed to survive the encounter, to survive the kidnapping with sound mind and sound body. And with that sound mind and sound body, this little 7-year-old did what many of us in the workplace refuse to do. This little girl decided to free herself.

Yes, Erica could have made herself content with surviving the kidnapping as many of us here make ourselves content with surviving the workplace. How many promising young women — young Ericas — do you know who have left the Road to Discovery to seek refuge in the dead-end zone of relative comfort known as the cul-de-sac, where they remain on the job — deaf, blind, powerless and speechless — waiting to be rescued.

Erica could have waited in that basement for police to find her. They certainly were out there searching.

But Erica took it upon herself to free herself. She bit through that duct tape to unbind herself. She kicked down that basement door and broke through that window to freedom.

This little 7-year-old is a reminder that surviving the encounter — whether it's the workplace, career or life in general — is not enough if you are not free.

She is a reminder that we cannot and must not wait to be rescued. She is a reminder that survival is not enough when restrained either physically or intellectually, when mistreated, when cheated out of the rewards we've earned. Erica is a reminder that we must make a decision to set ourselves free.

I leave you with a quote from another person who set herself free. Harriet Tubman, a runaway slave from Maryland, was known as the Moses of her people. She led hundreds of slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad before becoming a leader in the abolitionist movement.

"If I could have convinced more slaves that they were slaves," Tubman said, "I could have freed thousands more."

Continue along the Road to Discovery, survive the encounters and, when necessary, set yourselves free.

Thank you.