Petition Letter
This term I was faced with two obstacles that hindered my academic success in ENGL 281. In the start of the term, I was doing quite well in this course, earning no grade below an A. This changed in November when my grandpa, someone who has been a huge part of my family for my entire life was hospitalized and became extremely ill. It came as a huge surprise as he was doing well on Thanksgiving, which was just a few weeks prior to him becoming sick. He remained in the hospital for a few weeks, and during that time I often visited home to be with family. While away from school on the weekends I was unable to engage in school work as I needed to be present for my family, and for my grandpa. My grandpa passed away on November 12th, and it was one of the hardest things my family has had to endure. I kept in touch with the professor of this course and he was accommodating by providing extensions for an essay I had due around the same time as the funeral. However, while an extension was helpful, I was still preoccupied with family matters and could not give the essay the full attention it required in order for it to be successful. While grief is crippling, and hindered me from doing well in this course, I also struggle with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Bipolar I Disorder. When major life changes, such as my grandpa¿¿s death, happen it acts as a trigger which affects my health. I am fully aware of the accommodations Queens offers, and I have utilized and benefited from them, but this was something that at the time that I could not get help for as I felt so stuck in my head due to what happened and how I did not feel myself. Since then I have started to feel healthier, and the Christmas break was helpful in starting to feel back to normal. Moving forward, I plan to make more people aware of what is happening in my life at Queens so I can be fully supported when facing difficult times. When I see this grade, I feel that it does not reflect who I am as a student. If I am to receive an appeal for this grade it would greatly encourage me as a student to do better academically so final grades such as this do not repeat themselves.