Paul Simon’s song “Richard Cory” retraces Robinson’s poem concluding in Simon’s words, “Richard Cory went home one night/And put a bullet through his head.”
Richard Cory had everything a man could want—power, grace, and style. And money. What could have possibly gone so terribly wrong?
Here’s Richard Cory 2022. Cheslie Kryst.
In the right column are Cheslie’s many accomplishments, and admissions of inadequacy, pressure, and what her mother called, “high performance depression.” Her mother only learned about her daughter’s depression shortly before she jumped off the 26th floor of her apartment building.
When we speak of “knowing someone,” we have to recognize that within each of us is something unknowable, unfathomable, ineffable, that the words don’t exist to describe it. The suicide note that Cheslie wrote was matter of fact, leaving her belongings to her mother.
She added, “May This Day Bring You Rest and Peace” and followed it with a heart emoji.
Then she jumped.
Katie Meyer, the 22 year old star goalie for Standford Women’s soccer team.
Katie Meyer felt the “stress to be perfect” before she ended her life in a Stanford dorm last week. She had ended a conversation with her mother hours earlier, sounded happy, laughed, gave no sign or indication about what was to come.
And Sara Schulze. a 21 year old track star, added her name to this sad list in April.
Cheslie was a thirty year old attorney, one who had performed pro bono work for many non-profits. A former Miss USA winner, an interviewer for the TV Show “Extra”, Cheslie had achieved more in her thirty years than many do in their lifetimes.
Last March she wrote an essay for Allure magazine. “I discovered that the world’s most important question, especially when asked repeatedly and answered frankly, is: why?,” Kryst wrote of her change in thinking.
“Why work so hard to capture the dreams I’ve been taught by society to want when I continue to only find emptiness?” Kryst was 28 when she won the 2019 Miss USA pageant, becoming the oldest winner in the contest’s history, “a designation even the sparkling $200,000 pearl and diamond Mikimoto crown could barely brighten for some diehard pageant fans who immediately began to petition for the age limit to be lowered,” she noted.
“A grinning, crinkly-eyed glance at my achievements thus far makes me giddy about laying the groundwork for more, but turning 30 feels like a cold reminder that I’m running out of time to matter in society’s eyes — and it’s infuriating,” she wrote.
“My challenge of the status quo certainly caught the attention of the trolls, and I can’t tell you how many times I have deleted comments on my social media pages that had vomit emojis and insults telling me I wasn’t pretty enough to be Miss USA or that my muscular build was actually a ‘man body,’ ” she wrote.
Cheslie Kryst was the oldest woman to win the Miss USA pageant at age 28.
“And that was just my looks. My opinions, on the other hand, were enough to make a traditional pageant fan clutch their pearls,” Kryst added.
“Each time I say ‘I’m turning 30,’ I cringe a little,” she wrote. “Sometimes I can successfully mask this uncomfortable response with excitement; other times, my enthusiasm feels hollow, like bad acting.
“Society has never been kind to those growing old, especially women. (Occasional exceptions are made for some of the rich and a few of the famous.).
“I fought this fight before and it’s the battle I’m currently fighting with 30,” she wrote. “How do I shake society’s unwavering norms when I’m facing the relentless tick of time? It’s the age-old question: What happens when ‘immovable’ meets ‘unstoppable?’”
Kryst cited her impressive academic achievements — notably earning a law degree and an MBA at the same time at Wake Forest University after her undergraduate studies at the University of South Carolina, where she was a track athlete.
Kryst ended her contemplative essay by saying she marked her milestone birthday in her apartment, “parading around in a black silk top, matching shorts, and a floor-length robe while scarfing down banana pudding and screening birthday calls.
“I even wore my crown around the apartment for most of the day knowing I’d have to give it back at the end of my reign as Miss USA. I did what I wanted rather than the expected,” she wrote.
“Now, I now enter year 30 searching for joy and purpose on my own terms — and that feels like my own sweet victory,” Kryst said.
Sara Schulze, 21, died of suicide on April 13. The family announced.
“By balancing the demands of athletics, scholars, and everyday life, she was overwhelmed in one desperate moment,” the Shulzes said. “Like you, we were shocked and saddened while holding on to everything Sarah was.”
Twenty year old sophomore Lauren Bernett was named “Player of the Week” on her college team’s championship softball team. Majoring in biology and pre-vet she was a much-loved member of the team an student at James Madison University.
One day after receiving the honor, she took her own life. Bernett's former batterymate and breakout star of JMU's World Series run, Odicci Alexander, tweeted Wednesday: "Love you LB" and "You really never know what someone is going through."
What do these young girls, all under the age of 30, accomplished, successful, respected, and loved have in common? This list, sadly, only grows.