Petition Letter
Dear Associate Dean Academic,
I am writing this letter in order to appeal my academic probation for the school year. This is the second letter I have written out of two. The first letter was a petition on why I didn’t appeal my academic probation sooner. Over the span of my life I have had immense struggles with my mental health. I was diagnosed with severe anxiety when I was twelve and it has always been a huge problem and very paralyzing for my entire life. I have spoken to several therapists throughout my life and although it has been getting easier to control as I’ve gotten older, this last year was the hardest one yet. I had a very hard time adjusting to university life and living away from home, my friends, my family, and my entire support system. Which led to problems with my school and doing very poorly in my classes. Therefore, I was put on academic probation for the school year. I explained most of this in my previous appeal, however I would like to go in more detail here about what exactly happened this school year.
This specific petition is dedicated to the timeline of September first 2023 to April twenty-first 2024. My mental health struggles have always been very present in my life as I have suffered from various forms of anxiety, including social anxiety, severe general anxiety, and even OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) at some points throughout my life. One thing specifically about me is that I have never been very good with change. For example, throughout all my middle school and highschool years I struggled with the change between grades and a switch in classes, however I don’t think due to my anxiety I ever could have been ready for the change I went through last year. Whenever I have to go through a change in my life it always causes my anxiety to peak. Although as I mentioned I have gained much more control over it throughout the years, I have always had my family and childhood friends to help me when going through a change in my life and they have always been able to notice when something is not right with me. However, moving away from home although I knew they were there and supported me I couldn’t help but feel very alone as I thought I was the only one struggling with the change to university. Even though that is most likely not the case. I saw how amazing my friends and peers were doing and it only made me more ashamed and anxious about how and why I was doing so horribly, which started my anxiety to flare up more than it ever has. Looking back on it now I see how I should have reached out sooner to my loved ones to express what I was going through and get the help I definitely needed, but the anxiety I felt to have to explain this to my parents and friends or even a professional was so big I physically could not get myself to do it. I just assumed I’d eventually sort it out. Little did I know it only got worse.
Aside from the anxiety of moving to a new place, leaving my home and family I also had school to think about. For me, school has always been the number one anxiety driver for me for as long as I can remember. I have also strived to get good grades and have been able to ask for school help when I need it my entire life. So when the school year started, although I was feeling anxious about leaving home and feeling alone, I went to my lectures and tutorials but as the semester went on school got harder I got so anxious about doing poorly that I could barely get myself to do the assignments rather than do them to my full potential. As well as it led me to procrastinate doing all my work. I felt so anxious about procrastinating but I could not get myself to sit down to do it or I would feel such a large pit in my stomach that made me feel physically ill. After that I found myself fully unable to get myself out of bed in the morning and I would wake up with that same pit in my stomach everyday no matter if I was doing work or not. Around November I did reach out to my parents to see my therapist Candace who I have worked with my entire life. I met with her but I remember feeling so anxious and I couldn’t even fully be honest with her how I was doing. So something in my brain compartmentalized all my school problems and made me feel like nothing was wrong with my grades at all. After returning from winter break I still had the same problems as the first semester. However, towards the end of the second semester I started to do better in my classes and attend all of my psychology labs and my tutorials for my other classes. However, I was still very in denial and mentally blocked my first semester. By the time finals came around I wanted to redeem myself in psychology. I studied extremely hard for my final exam and did very well and felt some sort of success for my year although blocking out that I did poorly in my other classes. I believe throughout the school year and even the summer I lived in a fight or flight state and ultimately flight won every time. Until I found out I was on academic probation and everything came to a fast halt. I had to do the hardest thing I've ever had to do which was explain to my family, friends, and the school exactly what happened last year, and I am not one that can show weakness easily. This is the hardest thing I have ever even had to write. As I try not to ever burden anyone else with my struggles and keep it to myself.
However, I have been doing so much better recently. I have been seeing a therapist for a week now and I spent the whole summer getting my life back on track and working hard to get ready for the school year. I came into this school year with a new hope and feeling extremely driven and determined to make my redemption this year. I can assure you I am a very dedicated student who has strived for great grades my entire life. As for the past year my mental health really took a toll and didn’t allow me to show that. This last year it felt like my life fell apart and I couldn’t physically do school on top of it, as I struggled to even get out of bed. I was so ashamed to express this to my family, friends, and teachers throughout the year and left me feeling completely alone. Now I am completely open with everyone in my life and it took a large toll on me to even express the troubles I’ve had to the people closest to me.
I am writing this letter in order to appeal my academic probation for the school year. This is the second letter I have written out of two. The first letter was a petition on why I didn’t appeal my academic probation sooner. Over the span of my life I have had immense struggles with my mental health. I was diagnosed with severe anxiety when I was twelve and it has always been a huge problem and very paralyzing for my entire life. I have spoken to several therapists throughout my life and although it has been getting easier to control as I’ve gotten older, this last year was the hardest one yet. I had a very hard time adjusting to university life and living away from home, my friends, my family, and my entire support system. Which led to problems with my school and doing very poorly in my classes. Therefore, I was put on academic probation for the school year. I explained most of this in my previous appeal, however I would like to go in more detail here about what exactly happened this school year.
This specific petition is dedicated to the timeline of September first 2023 to April twenty-first 2024. My mental health struggles have always been very present in my life as I have suffered from various forms of anxiety, including social anxiety, severe general anxiety, and even OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) at some points throughout my life. One thing specifically about me is that I have never been very good with change. For example, throughout all my middle school and highschool years I struggled with the change between grades and a switch in classes, however I don’t think due to my anxiety I ever could have been ready for the change I went through last year. Whenever I have to go through a change in my life it always causes my anxiety to peak. Although as I mentioned I have gained much more control over it throughout the years, I have always had my family and childhood friends to help me when going through a change in my life and they have always been able to notice when something is not right with me. However, moving away from home although I knew they were there and supported me I couldn’t help but feel very alone as I thought I was the only one struggling with the change to university. Even though that is most likely not the case. I saw how amazing my friends and peers were doing and it only made me more ashamed and anxious about how and why I was doing so horribly, which started my anxiety to flare up more than it ever has. Looking back on it now I see how I should have reached out sooner to my loved ones to express what I was going through and get the help I definitely needed, but the anxiety I felt to have to explain this to my parents and friends or even a professional was so big I physically could not get myself to do it. I just assumed I’d eventually sort it out. Little did I know it only got worse.
Aside from the anxiety of moving to a new place, leaving my home and family I also had school to think about. For me, school has always been the number one anxiety driver for me for as long as I can remember. I have also strived to get good grades and have been able to ask for school help when I need it my entire life. So when the school year started, although I was feeling anxious about leaving home and feeling alone, I went to my lectures and tutorials but as the semester went on school got harder I got so anxious about doing poorly that I could barely get myself to do the assignments rather than do them to my full potential. As well as it led me to procrastinate doing all my work. I felt so anxious about procrastinating but I could not get myself to sit down to do it or I would feel such a large pit in my stomach that made me feel physically ill. After that I found myself fully unable to get myself out of bed in the morning and I would wake up with that same pit in my stomach everyday no matter if I was doing work or not. Around November I did reach out to my parents to see my therapist Candace who I have worked with my entire life. I met with her but I remember feeling so anxious and I couldn’t even fully be honest with her how I was doing. So something in my brain compartmentalized all my school problems and made me feel like nothing was wrong with my grades at all. After returning from winter break I still had the same problems as the first semester. However, towards the end of the second semester I started to do better in my classes and attend all of my psychology labs and my tutorials for my other classes. However, I was still very in denial and mentally blocked my first semester. By the time finals came around I wanted to redeem myself in psychology. I studied extremely hard for my final exam and did very well and felt some sort of success for my year although blocking out that I did poorly in my other classes. I believe throughout the school year and even the summer I lived in a fight or flight state and ultimately flight won every time. Until I found out I was on academic probation and everything came to a fast halt. I had to do the hardest thing I've ever had to do which was explain to my family, friends, and the school exactly what happened last year, and I am not one that can show weakness easily. This is the hardest thing I have ever even had to write. As I try not to ever burden anyone else with my struggles and keep it to myself.
However, I have been doing so much better recently. I have been seeing a therapist for a week now and I spent the whole summer getting my life back on track and working hard to get ready for the school year. I came into this school year with a new hope and feeling extremely driven and determined to make my redemption this year. I can assure you I am a very dedicated student who has strived for great grades my entire life. As for the past year my mental health really took a toll and didn’t allow me to show that. This last year it felt like my life fell apart and I couldn’t physically do school on top of it, as I struggled to even get out of bed. I was so ashamed to express this to my family, friends, and teachers throughout the year and left me feeling completely alone. Now I am completely open with everyone in my life and it took a large toll on me to even express the troubles I’ve had to the people closest to me.