Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern,

I am appealing in order to drop the courses I enrolled in last semester as well as one, the semester before. first year, I was not at my strongest point emotionally, however I was feeling well enough to complete most tasks and didn¿¿t feel hopeless.

Entering second year, my doctor and psychologist were quite nervous about me entering the school year feeling worse than I had first year. Therefore, my daily medication was raised to a higher dose. The first few weeks of school were okay as I was just adjusting to this new dose. However, this quickly proved to be a horrible idea. This new dose of medication, mixed with my existing thyroid condition, pushed me into being someone I have never been, and made me experience things I haven¿¿t in the past.

For many weeks in the late Fall into winter, I was unable to get out of bed, I slept through lectures, labs, doctors¿¿ appointments, train rides home and meals. Completing any task felt absolutely impossible. After many attempts ¿¿to end it¿ and after weeks of dissociation, unhappiness, and random outbursts of self-harm and anger, I was eventually pressured to see a doctor and my medication was adjusted in early January.

Coming back to school has been a challenge. Speaking with a therapist every week, along with my new medication dose has proven helpful. I very poorly last semester and I feel that those marks don¿¿t adequately represent me or my work ethic, and instead they reflect my obsessive-compulsive disorder and personality disorder that had gotten so severe, they were impeding me from completing even the smallest of day to day tasks. I am working very hard now to not let my mental health stand in the way of my schoolwork.

I have never been one to blame my misfortunes on others or excuses. My mental health has been an on-going battle since age 9, however it took a turn for the worse this year in a way that I didn¿¿t expect. I was not myself during those months, and now that I feel more like myself, I am ready to turn my grades around and focus on the future.