Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern,

I am submitting this appeal later than anticipated because of the very time intensive job that I had this summer. I worked in parliament in Ottawa where it was expected that every evening we completed three additional hours of volunteering every evening after work, and were booked for volunteering almost every weekend. I should have made the time to submit this earlier, but having these responsibilities while also trying to set myself up in a new city left me little time to deal with my other responsibilities.
I am submitting this appeal in an attempt to drop the courses late that I failed in the 2017/2018 academic year, (PHIL 233, PHIL 293, ENIN 140, PHIL 250, PHIL 257, and PHIL 270). I would also like to request credit standing in my remaining courses from the 2017/2018 academic year (PHIL 273, and RELS 252).
A few years ago my younger sister Georgia passed away. She died while crossing the street in our neighbourhood a few blocks away from my house. I did not process this loss healthily and buried myself in distractions. In my first year at Queen's, I distracted myself from dealing with this pain largely through getting into a serious relationship with a girl within my first couple of weeks here. Our relationship ended the following summer, where I subsequently began another serious relationship with a different girl continuing to put off my grief. In the summer of 2017, after seeing a counsellor for a short while, I determined that I had been handling this grief poorly and needed to process it properly in order to not carry this baggage throughout my life. I ended the relationship that I was in and made a real effort to deal with the pain I had been putting off for some time.
This is how my academic year in 2017 began. I was not expecting to have my grief affect me so strongly that fall, but I forced myself to process much of what I had neglected in years prior. I did much of this in talking to my parents, and a few choice friends, as I was not seeing a counsellor at the time. Although painful and consuming, this period of time created a lot of growth in me in the long run, and I am very glad that I decided to stop suppressing the grief I needed to be handling healthily and outwardly. This had a large impact on my studies, where I felt a severe lack of motivation to do simple tasks, or on many days even get out of bed.
Following this semester, I met with many of my professors about my failings in the previous semester and planned to reset my academic mindset moving forward into the winter semester of 2018. This was severely set back by another significant loss. One of my lifelong closest friends, Thomas Hill died in February 2018. Thomas and I had known each other since being young children at camp and only grown closer as we grew older. His parents divorced in the summer of 2016, which led to our relationship getting quite a bit closer as I share this in common with him. We spent Thomas's final years sharing much pain, as his parent's divorce sent him on a dark turn, and I confided in him as I processed my sister's death in the fall of 2017. In February, Thomas overdosed on his antidepressants and was found dead in his room the following morning.
I took Thomas's death very hard as we had grown very close to each other in sharing our pain. I knew his pain well, as he knew mine- the loss of him was and has continued to be very difficult for me to process. I found myself routinely unable to get out of bed in grief following this tragic incident. While being in open communication with my family doctor and parents, decided that I was best to go home as it became clear that I was unable to continue academically.
Though it was a very difficult year, I learned much about myself, and life in general. I took the time while I was at home to do my best to process this loss and get back into the routine of life, instead of continuing to feel severely overwhelmed and demotivated. I took a highly intense job this summer in Ottawa, as I thought it would be good for me to instil more purpose and accountability in my day to day. I found it very helpful to have this change of routine and scenery, and feel that I am ready to get back into academia with a better mindset. I am hopeful of what I can achieve in my future at Queen's.

Sincerely,
Duncan Walsh