Petition Letter
I??m writing this petition to drop courses late this term due to severe mental health issues preventing me from passing them. Ever since covid lockdowns, I have been struggling with minor symptoms of depression. These symptoms include feeling lonely, tired, unmotivated, and just generally lacking energy to do daily activities. These symptoms affected my academic performance, which lead to dropping or failing a lot of courses, which then caused me to return for my 5th year this year. Even though I was clearly struggling, I was trying my best to manage things on my own and aim for graduation this year.
However, over the past winter break, my symptoms started becoming a lot worse. During the break I developed terrible sleeping habits, usually falling asleep sometime between 6am-8am and waking up late in the evening. Even when I was awake, I was spending hours at a time in my bed, simply because I had no reason to get up and do anything. I think one of the causes of my worsening symptoms over the holidays was just the feeling of isolation. I spent the entire winter break in Kingston, living alone, and had not received any invitations from family or friends to meet for the holidays. This continued until the start of the winter semester. Going into this semester, I was already prepared to have a hard time, since I was taking 6 courses to have enough credits to graduate after this term. For the first two weeks, I was motivated and attending most of my classes. My sleep was still very inconsistent, which caused me to be extremely exhausted every day and only having enough energy for 1 or 2 lectures before deciding to go home.
Once it was time for most classes to have their first major evaluation, I was struggling to find the energy to work on my assignments. I was able to finish so of them, but for most I rand out of time or gave up entirely and ended up receiving a 0%. From here on, my symptoms of depression got worse and worse throughout the term. Trying to manage 6 courses and knowing that I had already fallen behind in most of them was incredibly stressful, so eventually I had stopped attending classes completely. Every morning I??d wake up at noon or later, and it would take me 2 or more hours just to get out of bed. Every day I??d just feel incredibly tired and unmotivated. Every time I thought about the assignments I had to do or the course material I had to catch up on, I just could not muster the mental energy or motivation to do them and would put them off for another day. After the first few assignments, I had simply stopped working on most of them, and the 0% grades kept piling up. Despite my poor performance, I still felt that I could turn things around and pass my courses, I also put a lot of pressure on myself to graduate this term no matter what, so I did not want to give up and drop any of my courses.
At this point, I knew I wouldn??t be able to pass if thing stayed the way they were, so in the start of February I started seeing a mental health counselor from SWS. The counselor helped me work out some the issues I was facing and gave me a lot of advice to help with depression, such as sleeping more consistently and getting more physical activity. Even if I wasn??t attending classes, I still made the effort to walk outside for 10-20 minutes every day. I think thanks to this, I was able to prevent my mental health from deteriorating further, but I was still having a really hard time focusing on my classes and feeling incredibly stressed. I was hoping to make a quicker recovery so I could focus better on the 2nd half of the term and at least submit enough work to pass my courses. However, this wasn??t the case, and eventually I realized that my courses were no longer possible to pass. Once I realized this, the deadline to drop the courses had already passed. Since then, I??ve been talking with my counselor and academic advisor to figure out what my options are regarding my circumstances this term.
For now, I??m petitioning to drop 5 of my courses, CISC 454, CISC 457, SOCY 122, GPHY 342, and GPHY 345. For the future, I??m considering taking a break from studies, but I??ll wait and see how my condition is this September. Hopefully this gives you a grasp of my mental health circumstances, and how they??ve affected my ability to study. Thanks for taking the time to consider my petition.
However, over the past winter break, my symptoms started becoming a lot worse. During the break I developed terrible sleeping habits, usually falling asleep sometime between 6am-8am and waking up late in the evening. Even when I was awake, I was spending hours at a time in my bed, simply because I had no reason to get up and do anything. I think one of the causes of my worsening symptoms over the holidays was just the feeling of isolation. I spent the entire winter break in Kingston, living alone, and had not received any invitations from family or friends to meet for the holidays. This continued until the start of the winter semester. Going into this semester, I was already prepared to have a hard time, since I was taking 6 courses to have enough credits to graduate after this term. For the first two weeks, I was motivated and attending most of my classes. My sleep was still very inconsistent, which caused me to be extremely exhausted every day and only having enough energy for 1 or 2 lectures before deciding to go home.
Once it was time for most classes to have their first major evaluation, I was struggling to find the energy to work on my assignments. I was able to finish so of them, but for most I rand out of time or gave up entirely and ended up receiving a 0%. From here on, my symptoms of depression got worse and worse throughout the term. Trying to manage 6 courses and knowing that I had already fallen behind in most of them was incredibly stressful, so eventually I had stopped attending classes completely. Every morning I??d wake up at noon or later, and it would take me 2 or more hours just to get out of bed. Every day I??d just feel incredibly tired and unmotivated. Every time I thought about the assignments I had to do or the course material I had to catch up on, I just could not muster the mental energy or motivation to do them and would put them off for another day. After the first few assignments, I had simply stopped working on most of them, and the 0% grades kept piling up. Despite my poor performance, I still felt that I could turn things around and pass my courses, I also put a lot of pressure on myself to graduate this term no matter what, so I did not want to give up and drop any of my courses.
At this point, I knew I wouldn??t be able to pass if thing stayed the way they were, so in the start of February I started seeing a mental health counselor from SWS. The counselor helped me work out some the issues I was facing and gave me a lot of advice to help with depression, such as sleeping more consistently and getting more physical activity. Even if I wasn??t attending classes, I still made the effort to walk outside for 10-20 minutes every day. I think thanks to this, I was able to prevent my mental health from deteriorating further, but I was still having a really hard time focusing on my classes and feeling incredibly stressed. I was hoping to make a quicker recovery so I could focus better on the 2nd half of the term and at least submit enough work to pass my courses. However, this wasn??t the case, and eventually I realized that my courses were no longer possible to pass. Once I realized this, the deadline to drop the courses had already passed. Since then, I??ve been talking with my counselor and academic advisor to figure out what my options are regarding my circumstances this term.
For now, I??m petitioning to drop 5 of my courses, CISC 454, CISC 457, SOCY 122, GPHY 342, and GPHY 345. For the future, I??m considering taking a break from studies, but I??ll wait and see how my condition is this September. Hopefully this gives you a grasp of my mental health circumstances, and how they??ve affected my ability to study. Thanks for taking the time to consider my petition.