Competing With Life

Competing with Life is a deeply personal exploration of the dual pressures I face as a Division 1 track athlete and a university student living with dyslexia. This work reflects the constant mental, emotional, and physical toll of balancing two demanding identities — one rooted in high-performance sport, the other in academic struggle and perseverance.

Through this project, I confront the invisible labor of managing a learning disability in an academic environment that often misunderstands or overlooks neurodiversity, while simultaneously pushing my physical limits within the elite realm of collegiate athletics. The emotional extremes I experience — from drive and determination to burnout and self-doubt — form the core narrative of the work.

At the center of the piece are 25 race bibs, each featuring emotionally charged text above and below the numbers. These phrases echo the internal dialogue triggered by external critiques from coaches, doctors, and professors — voices that often feed into cycles of self-doubt and self-criticism. The vibrant color palette used throughout the work references my dyslexic learning strategies — particularly my habit of color-coding and highlighting text to aid comprehension. This visual language serves both as a coping mechanism and a means of reclaiming control over how I process the world.

By intertwining these two aspects of my identity, Competing with Life reveals how strength and struggle coexist, and how vulnerability can be transformed into a form of resistance and expression.