Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I developed depression and anxiety during the beginning of the fall term. I was unable to make new friends during frosh week and throughout the year, and didn¿¿t have my parents to centre myself. Loneliness and isolation quickly took over in the fall, and I was not in regular contact classmates on a regular basis outside labs and tutorials. I stopped going to lectures, as I did not want to be in contact with people in general, and I thought I could do the online assignments without the help of lectures. Eventually, I began to miss deadlines for the online activities and my mental state eventually lead me unable to keep track of deadlines, as I cared little about it. I sat in my room alone, doing nothing and wasting my time, only going outside my room to eat food.
The problem became more severe during the winter term, as the isolation settled in, and eventually hated going outside whatsoever. I began missing labs and tutorials on top of lectures, and was not in good mental state of mind. Deadlines stressed me out more frequently, and instead of handling the situation properly, I resorted to distract myself as much as possible with the computer. My life had become a cycle of stressing out, not doing anything about it, distracting myself, and inevitably missing the deadline. I lost motivation completely to study and my time was solely focussed on myself and how stressed I was. I played video games and watch YouTube videos in excess to cope with my stress. I did not want to involve other people in my misery. I kept regular contact with my parents, but to not disappoint them, I never shared the state of my mental health nor how my academics were going.
My completion of assignments hinged on how much time it takes to do it at the last possible second. I had a procrastination problem. Due to poor study habits developed in high school, I couldn¿¿t cope with the amount of material needed to be learned. I completed assignments minutes before they were due and was not my best work. I was too used to studying for 3-5 hours the night before tests and doing well in it. This did not work in Queen¿¿s, and was always playing catch up to my peers. I did not obtain the help I desperately need from Student Support nor the professors to change my study habits. I didn¿¿t want to ask for help due to my previous experience of never needing it, and I was wrong in my inactions.
Biology, which was previously my best subject in high school, was something I couldn¿¿t find interest in anymore. Despite barely passing BIOL 102 in the fall term, I didn¿¿t see my poor grade of a C as a wakeup call for my education. What followed in BIOL 103, was me not attending the lectures and neither the labs, with constituted 33 of my grade. Due to an earlier complication with the scheduling, I had initially missed the first lab. My anxiety and lack of judgement got the better of me and I did not attend any of the labs in BIOL 103, which directly led to the failure of my course. In similar fashion, I had also stopped attending the Psychology labs for almost two months and didn¿¿t attend my Math tutorials. Math was always my worst subject, and instead of practicing more to improve myself, I didn¿¿t want to do it altogether. I also didn¿¿t submit many of the assignments I was supposed to do during the period, which lead me to perform poorly in my grades and exams.
Just before exams had begun, I had broken down on the Good Friday weekend from me meeting my high school friends again for the first time in months. I confessed everything to my parents and they have been extremely supportive of me. I had set to fix myself from then onwards and seek the help I needed. I visited an academic counsellor, Cindy Butts, and eventually visited psychological counselling for the first time, to Arunima Khanna. I tried my best during the exams, but my past mistakes of not attending lectures and not taking my education seriously costed me dear in terms of exam marks, and I wasn¿¿t able to perform well enough to my expectations.
I now want to become a dentist, and attend dental school eventually. I am retaking BIOL 103 and MATH 121 during the summer, to make up for my mistakes, and this time, I will stay focussed on my education and try my best in all future endeavours. I will continue to see my counsellors in the 2016-2017 year and get the help I need for my education through my support group and workshops.