Petition Letter
Hello. I'm Dalia, a Lebanese student currently studying online from home. Due to the circumstances I am about to detail, I have had difficulty engaging with my coursework as required, and been in a headspace both irrational and difficult. As you may know, Lebanon is the immediate neighbor of Palestine and has been undergoing severe bombardment alongside Palestine, on the brink (and under constant threats) of total destruction, already on top of our devastating economic crisis of the past 4-5 years.
I had been facing exceptionally new difficulties navigating the idea of daily life as my homeland and kin suffer to extents that my worst, most debilitating, anxiety-induced nightmares could never have come near imagining even the half of. I have been very depressed unfortunately. Additionally, due to the rise in illness (what I imagine would be due to the pollution caused by missiles and white phosphorous) at one point from the end of May - June, I had been fighting a severe case of a bacterial infection in the blood that has been spreading both here and in Gaza, apparently. Currently, I am ill with an unknown sickness but it is not as serious as my previous debilitation - this has been localized to my respiratory system and sinuses. Either way -- I kept trying to tell myself that I could catch up and get better in hopes that unfortunately turned out to be naive and overestimated, as I just felt I cannot keep delaying getting my degree like this.
With war escalating here at home, our country that's hardly been on one foot since 2019/2020, and the genocide of our brothers & sisters, I did not really learn to carry myself better. I felt stuck in a lot of ways, reaching my studies; as most everything has felt paralyzingly futile. I have already been diagnosed with depression for many, many years now (I honestly wish I knew how to just deal) and have been registered with QSAS for all these years. It is safe to say I mentally have been in quite a special rut since October, and I denied myself how powerful the added hindrance could really be. So, I apologize for not reaching out to my professors sufficiently to deal with the circumstances at hand. I kept telling myself
I had been facing exceptionally new difficulties navigating the idea of daily life as my homeland and kin suffer to extents that my worst, most debilitating, anxiety-induced nightmares could never have come near imagining even the half of. I have been very depressed unfortunately. Additionally, due to the rise in illness (what I imagine would be due to the pollution caused by missiles and white phosphorous) at one point from the end of May - June, I had been fighting a severe case of a bacterial infection in the blood that has been spreading both here and in Gaza, apparently. Currently, I am ill with an unknown sickness but it is not as serious as my previous debilitation - this has been localized to my respiratory system and sinuses. Either way -- I kept trying to tell myself that I could catch up and get better in hopes that unfortunately turned out to be naive and overestimated, as I just felt I cannot keep delaying getting my degree like this.
With war escalating here at home, our country that's hardly been on one foot since 2019/2020, and the genocide of our brothers & sisters, I did not really learn to carry myself better. I felt stuck in a lot of ways, reaching my studies; as most everything has felt paralyzingly futile. I have already been diagnosed with depression for many, many years now (I honestly wish I knew how to just deal) and have been registered with QSAS for all these years. It is safe to say I mentally have been in quite a special rut since October, and I denied myself how powerful the added hindrance could really be. So, I apologize for not reaching out to my professors sufficiently to deal with the circumstances at hand. I kept telling myself