Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello,

My name is Brooklyn Bastarache 20052507. I am currently a second year ArtSci student. Unfortunately this term I had to go through some unwelcoming experiences with regards to family and friends. My family has gone under a lot of stress with regards to a family illness. A very close family member of mine has been recently diagnosed with leukaemia (blood cancer) and is not doing so well. This has caused me a great deal of stress and anxiety because it has been affecting my family greatly. I have been required to leave school often to drive to appointments to see doctors and specialists, because my mother does not like to drive. I have also been affected by this by having to leave and visit her because we are not sure how much more time we have with her. This has been happening over a period of time, not just recently. I am very close to this family member, which is why is it causing me so much distress. My father who helps pay for my education is now loosing his job as his place of work is closing which is another catalyst to my stress.
On top of this, I had to witness one of my friends try to commit suicide about a month ago due to her mental help and lack of medical attention. Unfortunately this affected my academics because I felt responsible for her. I have had to miss classes to go see her and make sure she does not try to do it again. She attempted again a couple weeks ago and it really bothered me. I finally convinced her to go to the hospital where she saw someone.
I believe this has affected my academics and unfortunately there is nothing I can do about it because it is out of my control.
I already have enough stress trying to balance school, varsity sports, and work. I check in every once in awhile with an athletic coordinator and she asks how I am doing but I feel like I should not bother people with this stuff. I am now realizing that I cannot do this on my own and that I should be talking to someone, but I personally feel like I should be dealing with all of these problems on my own. I am trying my hardest to stay above water here but I feel like all of this is just holding me down, making it incredibly difficult to focus. With all of this going on I felt like I had to pick and chose what course I could dedicate my time to, because I have so much going on in my life and inside my head. I feel that all of my courses were affected by this, and it is my fault by letting this happen, I should have dropped a course earlier in order to make it easier to help my family. I just need to drop this course, so that it does not affect my gpa, so that I do not lose my spot on my varsity team here at queens and continue my studies. I would really appreciate it if I was able to talk to someone next year regarding mental health because I feel that would be a good step in the right direction.