The Tragic Story Of Cheslie Kryst: Miss America Committed Suicide, And The Nation Is Not Far Behind

On January 30th, 2022, Cheslie Kryst threw herself from the upper stories of a high-rise building in New York City. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The suicide immediately captured national headlines on all the major networks. Kryst had won the Miss USA beauty pageant in 2019, and deservedly so. With long, curly black hair, gorgeous black eyes, and a very feminine complexion, she was the picture of beauty. That being said, Cheslie Kryst was by no means merely a pretty face. A native of North Carolina, she graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in business management in 2013 before attending Wake Forest, where she impressively earned both her business degree as well as her law degree. She was a correspondent for Extra at the time of her death and spent her downtime practicing civil law and counseling prisoners who believed that they had received overbearing sentences. She was, by all available accounts, a wonderful person who had everything going for her. This seems to be a story that is fast becoming familiar to the majority of Americans; the story of a promising and brilliant young life being cut short by suicide.

I did not know Cheslie Kryst. I cannot pretend, nor would I ever want to, that I could say why Cheslie did what she did. I do, however, notice a very apt comparison that can be made on the macro level between what happened with Cheslie and what is happening to our country as a whole. To be clear, at no point will this article attempt to speculate or weigh in on the reasons or lack of them behind the decision that Cheslie made to end her life; If one comes away with such a conclusion, it will be a result of them misreading this piece. Cheslie Kryst was Miss America, and she killed herself. She in many ways was the perfect embodiment of America at her best, and also of the American Millenial. This is relevant because, despite what you might think, America as a nation is nearing the conclusion of a suicide attempt that has spanned the vast majority of the past century.

Cheslie was aesthetically beautiful, which goes without saying. This is also an undeniably accurate description of the natural composition of America, from the redwood forests to the Gulfstream waters as the song goes. Kryst was also remarkably intelligent, with serious academic credentials. America likewise is remarkably well educated; while some like to point out the fact that we rank in the 20s when it comes to standardized test scores globally, or that there are serious problems with failing inner-city schools, America is still one of the smartest countries in the world. We have the best universities on earth in the Ivy League, and still proportionally outperform the rest of the world when it comes to patent grants. According to the Brookings Institute's webpage, 87% of worldwide inventions have come from people who were born in the United States. Cheslie was also biracial, the product of a loving marriage between two Americans who claimed different ethnicities. She was a spectacular representation of the American melting pot that we all hear so much about.

America despite all her inherited glory is killing herself, economically, spiritually, and in many cases literally. According to the CDC, suicide among Americans has increased 35% since 1999. In June of 2020, the CDC released data that indicated one in four Americans between 18-25 have contemplated suicide. In a recently released Harvard Youth Poll, 51% of American youth confessed that they frequently feel down and depressed. Analysis of public health data from recent years shows that the leading cause of death for American men between the ages of 18 and 25 is fentanyl overdose. The opioid crisis ravages American communities, sparing no one on account of race or class. As covered by yesterday's article, church attendance is down upwards of 50%. Marriage rates that stood at 72% in 1960 now sit at a low of 51%. The vast majority of children are now born out of wedlock. Aside from orthodox religious communities, Americans are no longer producing at replacement rates; Our population is now officially in decline.

What is the cause of all this, of our collective and hysterical suicide attempt? The answer is that we as a people are suffering from a lack of meaning. Americans used to get their meaning, and their obligation to their nuclear family, from religion. Religion is dying in this country. In absence of religion, people tend to look to the next highest rung of our existence for a purpose. This rung usually consists of our country and our communities. Well, after decades of being taught in state schools that our country is an evil, twisted, global force for the ill, the purpose that it offers slowly fades away for the youngest generations. As for our communities? They used to be defined by the church, and town pride which mostly revolved around sports teams. Not as many kids play sports these days, most of them are fat and addicted to video games. Communities that haven't yet been shattered by gang violence and the opioid epidemic are in many cases isolated and unfriendly, the fabric that once bound their residents together frayed beyond function or recognition.

Where else, then, can people find meaning? Some might choose to find purpose in raising a family, but most people have lost sight of the true nature of marriage and its purpose. As many marriages end in divorce these days as are maintained, leading to the once bright hope for meaning and purpose offered by the prospect of making a family to becoming the angriest and bitterest part of many people's lives. Children grow up in split homes and become distrustful of the institutions of marriage and parenthood which could have offered them the purpose in life that they so desperately crave. So with all other options seemingly exhausted, Americans are forced to find meaning only in themselves. This usually either leads them to do drugs and have copious amounts of sex, or it leads them to focus solely on their career and their money, neglecting their family and friends in the process.

There is no such thing as a true atheist. Everyone believes in something with religious zeal, even if that something is, unfortunately, themselves. The problem people are facing these days is the existence of reality; a reality that contains one supreme nation out of the whole globe, and one true religious ethic. Those who fail to accept these two realities, or at the very least to live with respect and appreciation for their utilitarian nature, are doomed to wander through life with an ever-growing hole in their heart and their soul.

This situation can still be reversed, but only by the truth. Only by friends guiding friends, by individuals swallowing their pride and rejecting the ill-gotten lens through which they have been groomed to view reality through. The truth will indeed set us free. To reiterate, no one knows why Cheslie did what she did. It is a great tragedy that, in the end, there was not someone there for her, and may God rest her soul. We as individuals and as a people do not have to continue to walk down the path that she did. We have been given everything we need, by God or the Universe, to save this country and live happy lives. This doesn't mean that everyone needs to convert to catholicism and pray five times a day; it simply means that we all need to start being straightforward with ourselves and with how we look at life. America is smart, she is beautiful, she is strong and she is kind. She needs only to put down the knife, to step off the ledge, and to gaze honestly for once into the mirror.