(KHON) — Amanda Eller’s dad, John opened with a chronology of what transpired over the 17 days that Amanda was missing, starting with Tuesday, May 8 when she went for a hike and got disoriented.

The next day, May 9 she was reported missing.

Emergency officials searched for her for 72 hours. After that, volunteer searchers took over. 

Amanda took questions from reporters. Her story was hopeful every day.

She said the helicopters passed over her and didn’t see her waving them down in the first few days.

But everyday she still got up, foraged for food and overcame her fears and kept going.

Though it was a harrowing experience, she made a deliberate decision to choose life. 

“It was an opportunity to overcome fear of everything. It was an opportunity to be stripped away of all of the comforts of this modern world and see what was left,” said Amanda.

She does not engage in social media. She said she is not feeding into the negativity that is on social media.

She is choosing to avoid the stories that are circulating, the rumors and she doesn’t want to know what is being said about her.

Amanda said that she has a lot of thanks for both her boyfriend Ben Konkol and Sarah Haynes for “taking the fall for me, sticking my head in the sand. I do understand that. But what I do recommend is let’s not feed that. Let’s rise above.” 

When asked if there was anything that she ingested the morning that she disappeared that could have altered her mental state, she adamantly said “No, I’m extremely healthy.”

She had a super food smoothie, an Rx bar and water.

“I definitely didn’t have any drugs or alcohol or anything like that. Anybody that knows me and knows my spiritual journey in the last few years knows that I get high off of life, and I get high off of people and heart.”

Amanda shared that she wants to get back to her work–eventually working at a wellness center and helping others. 

For now, she’s grateful to be alive.

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