Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Student Number: 20357364
Dear Academic Petitions Committee,

This letter is to request a CR for the course PSYC 100 that was taken in the academic year of 2022-2023. During the 2023 winter term I had been struggling with my courses and keeping up with my work. The summer prior to my first year of University one of my close friends; Sarah Bradbury, had passed away in a car accident.
On Saturday July 9th 2022, I was with one of our mutual friends Maya. We had not heard from her all day. She was supposed to attend work and had not shown up, we had been asking her sister and all of her other friends at the time if they had heard from her or knew where she was and no one was sure. It was around 7pm at the time and she had been missing since the morning. The police officers went on telling us how she had been in a car accident this morning and that she had not made it. Everyone in the room at this point was balling their eyes out because no one could believe that it was true. I can remember the words that her mother said after the police officer confirmed her passing. With tears in her eyes and her voice trembling she said “she had just graduated high school, she is too young for this, she had so much to live for”. Those words have always stuck with me till this day. What I can't wrap my head around is that her parents were not contacted until much later in the day after she had already passed. I remember her dad walking into the house mid conversation with the police and he broke down into tears when they told him. They asked one or both of her parents to come with them to ensure that the things that they had found were her belongings and so her dad left to check. During this time I felt as though I did not belong there. I wanted to leave but I did not have a car with me and my parents were not answering. Everyone in the room was devastated and crying. Later her dad walked in clutching her backpack to his chest crying so hard. It was the worst and I could not keep it together luckily my parents were on the way to get me.
The 14th of July was her memorial and I was devastated. My parents would not change the flight that we were about to take to go on a family trip. I cried so much to them asking repeatedly to change it so I could attend but we were unable to. I then had flowers delivered to her house when I was waiting for my flight in the airport. I spoke to my therapist throughout the summer about it and thought I would be okay for school.
At the start of the 2022 academic year I was able to take a little step outside my bubble but I still felt the pressure and emptiness in my stomach from the day she had passed. It would replay in my head without any warnings and it killed me every time. It felt like it was never going to end. Throughout the start of the year it was not awful but as the year went on I had sleepless nights and it was catching up to me. When I went back to my hometown during the winter break it was a refresh of all events that had happened. When I returned to school for the winter term I was not in a stable place. I struggled with keeping my mind off of it and keeping myself happy. My mind would wander as I tried to complete assignments, in lectures, sitting in my room, even if I was out with friends it would pop up in my thoughts. It was uncontrollable. I could feel myself falling behind but I knew I could pass these courses with a better grade so I continued to take them. But it did not get better. I should have dropped the courses at the time, looking back I could tell my mental health was suffering greatly to the point where I was not eating properly and would not sleep well either. Both of these factors combined affected my academics greatly. I had tried different strategies with my therapist to help me through the grief but it took more time then I had wanted. I wanted to pursue in PSYC but my mental health made it much more difficult for me to get to the point where I needed to be. My winter term grades suffered greatly but over this past summer I was able to slowly recover.

If you have any questions or need any additional information please feel free to contact me through my email.

Sincerely,
Emily Harvey