Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

I am writing to appeal for a late drop of 3 courses from the past academic year, RELS 137 from the winter term, ENIN 140 from the winter term as well, and SOCY 122 from the Fall/Winter terms.

When I accepted my offer to Queens University I was very excited to move to Kingston and experience university life, expecting to be able to meet a bunch of new people, attend classes in person and in turn create memories that would last forever. Unfortunately, when it was announced it would be online, I was told that I would not be able to live in residence because my family and I thought that it was a move that did not make sense at the time. While I was supposed to be moving to Kingston, my family was planning on moving to Toronto that same summer, ultimately I ended up moving with them, losing all the friends I knew back in Ottawa. When I moved to Ottawa 4 years ago, I spent my first 2 years completely alone with no friends and when I moved to Toronto during the pandemic I got the deja vu feeling of being completely alone. Shortly after the move, my father went back to Beirut, Lebanon and two days later, there was this massive port explosion that would change the situation in the country drastically.

Going into the school year, there was nothing on my mind besides Lebanon, the damages directly affected my father's work, the house I lived in, and the city I spent 15 years of my life in, they were all nearly gone. Going into the first term, I thought I could put it behind me since I was not present to witness the disaster that was Lebanon at the time, and I did an alright but mediocre, that was enough for me to pass. Going into the second term, however, my father flew my family and me to Beirut in order to get away from the stresses of being alone in Canada and going to see family and friends back home. Going back to Beirut was what I thought I needed in order to bring some joy into my life, however when I saw the state of the city I once thought to be a paradise, it brought back the memories of war I, unfortunately, had to experience as a child. This was during my winter holiday where I was not attending classes or submitting assignments as fall courses ended and winter courses were due to start in January. The plan was to leave, yet my mother caught Covid-19 and it was bad so the whole family had to quarantine and we had to extend our stay 3 weeks later than originally planned, thus making me start my winter term in Lebanon. There were many complications with studying in Lebanon, such as the power cuts every 3 hours, the time zones difference and the bad internet connection. This directly contributed to my negative study habits as I was physically disadvantaged with the latter; It also affected me mentally as I was already in a dark place due to the state of the country but I also felt like with the situation at home with my mother sick and the other extenuating circumstances that I was powerless in being able to submit quality work/any work at the time. These 3 courses were affected the most as SOCY 122 was the one course I struggled in during the fall term, while when I was experiencing my low point, the 2 winter courses were massively affected and due to my decent first semester I was very lucky to salvage my other classes.

The family came back to Toronto at a time of lockdown where we went back to the life we lived prior to our trip, but this time it was different, we all felt a feeling of extreme sadness. In the fall term, I did not experience the depressing life of Beirut and it did not affect me to a massive degree yet in the winter term, I lost all motivation, I could not even think about school. When the course-dropping deadline was approaching, I contemplated dropping these courses as that powerless feeling came back and I thought it was too late. Yet I tried to tell myself that I would be able to push through and turn these courses around. Evidently, I couldn't. Now, I am in a much better place, I have found and rented an apartment in Kingston to which I am moving before the fall term, this I believe will greatly help my mental health as well the fact that the failure I have experienced has taught me a very valuable lesson and I am currently in the process of taking 3 summer classes in order to try and rejuvenate my situation as a student at Queens. Knowing that these courses are hindering my GPA and my academic standing, I am using this as fuel to motivate myself to become the best student I can be and I am making sure that I become a stronger individual as well.