By the time you read this - Cheslie Kryst - 2024

 

So Gram just read this so I decided to read it too. But it was not really what I was expecting so I don’t really recommend it. Here is my view.

Cheslie was gorgeous. I put her up there with Mariah the Scientist and S M-L.

The book does not really discuss her mental illness other than like one text message. It is mostly about her career as miss usa. As someone who has mental health problems I was looking forward to hearing from her, exactly what her problems were, and what she did to deal with them. 

This is the second book I’ve read where the protagonist kills themselves by jumping off of a building. First, if you are able to convince yourself to do that, you probably can accomplish anything in your life. In both books, both of the women were highly successful and super talented. Second, if I ever kill myself it is not going to be from jumping off a building. I am too afraid I will survive that. I would definitely OD, because to me it is less scary and less damaging if you fail. 

Yes, my mental health has not really been good in the last four years. There are two camps as far as I can tell. In the book, Cheslie’s mom basically said Cheslie fought a good fight but in the end she needed relief from her depression so she killed herself and no one is to blame and no one should feel guilt. 

Then you have the camp from my dad and others who would say suicide is very selfish because you leave everyone else behind in a bad state. I tend to agree with Cheslie’s mom. It’s not like I want to have mental health problems. It’s just how it’s been lately. To me there is no aspect of selfishness. You are not being smug, you are just struggling because that is how it is. However, for people without mental health problems (like my dad and others) I certainly can understand how they could view suicide as selfish. I think it is like how in the book she says being black means you have to try twice as hard to maybe achieve what others get from putting forth a normal effort. For me (being white) I am like what are you talking about, but I am sure she is right or there is at least some truth to what she said and I cannot see it because I do not live it on a day to day. 

So I think the subject matter of this book is boring (mostly about beauty pageants) but certainly due to what happened there is an important message about checking in on everyone’s mental health (even if they are really beautiful and highly successful).

There is one chapter in this book called “the giant puzzle I couldn’t solve” which goes on to detail a failed relationship she had. This chapter title is my thought exactly about relationships. I also kind of think that most (not all) relationships are like Obama’s deal with Iran (I don’t know the details but everyone has told me it was a bad deal). And she was talking to two guys at one point but stopped because she thought it was wrong but then her boyfriend cheated on her (while she was miss usa, a bold move lol) eventually anyway. I’ve read so many books about men treating women badly I would almost advocate for women cheating or seeking revenge in a bad relationship because as far as I can tell it is not like the man ever cares about the relationship so you might as well seize equality and fight back. If you’re a woman and you want to play the field, go ahead cuz the guys are gonna do it anyway (not always but this is my observation). 

Also, I am pretty jealous at how many people tried to date her off of instagram. Maybe I will be reincarnated as someone beautiful so people would message me too.

Also, I wonder why she did not publicize her mental health problems while she was the reigning miss usa. Maybe she did not want to talk about her health or maybe the climate was wrong (although it was probably pretty good in 2019/2020). If she did not want to talk about her health, that is fine, these are personal data anyways. However, she did a have a good platform at the time to raise awareness for mental health issues if she had chosen to do so. It would have been super relatable and I think she would have received a lot of support from the public if she had externalized her own struggles. I think she was still struggling at the time and often it is much easier to speak on a topic after you have conquered it or at least are doing better. But I don’t know, if someone has a thought on this part, put it in the comments.    

Alright, my review of Peter Attia’s book will be up soon, but my strength coach just told me some bad news about him which I will be sure to point out in my review. It is kind of bizarre/dumb actually. Ok be well everyone. If you have mental health problems, please seek help (as I do), call 911, see your doctor, tell a friend, go to therapy, talk to your neighbor, talk to anyone who you think could help you. Try your best to fight the good fight. Peace!