Petition Letter
To whom this may concern,
My name is Graydon Morrow (20078817) and I am appealing to waive a requirement to withdraw from Queen's University. This past year has been without a doubt the most challenging year of my life facing hardships during the pandemic that took away all my concentration and focus. With the start of this academic year came lots of anxiety for me as the only experience I had with online learning was from the winter term of 2020 when we were forced to go online due to covid. This proved much more challenging of an adjustment than I previously thought. In late October of 2020 I Learned that the retirement home that my grandmother was in was facing a large outbreak of covid 19, within 2 weeks of hearing this news my grandmother was transferred to hospital where she later passed away. The unexpected passing took me entirely off guard and had a profound impact on my mental and well being because of my living situation in Kingston I was unable to travel home to mourn with my family and was stuck in Kingston to figure things out on my own .Mundane tasks such as getting out of bed to do school work or keeping on top of my rent become daunting. I nearly stopped eating and would hardly prepare for assignments and upcoming tests and exams. It was an extremely dark time for me. As the year progressed and my academic standings worsened my fellow peers and family noticed that I was not doing well. This all came to a head when a fellow student I was living with was tested positive for covid 19 and I received a notice from Kingston public health notifying me that I had to stay isolated for 2 weeks. With my already unstable mental health this only took me much deeper into my already prevalent symptoms of depression and anxiety. I was offered a counsellor service over the phone from public health to help me deal with the crippling mental illness I was facing but found it nearly impossible to open up over the phone and got little to no use from the sessions. As the 2 weeks came to a close my housemates noticed that I was in terrible shape. They offered their help and counselling if I ever needed to talk but I foolishly refused. It wasn't until I started getting terrible migraines and brain fog that I realized the environment I was in was terrible and packed up my things and went home . Slowly I began to feel normal coming to terms with what had happened in the previous months but I still felt many symptoms of depression and anxiety. Looking back, the biggest mistake I made was not accessing the resources that were available to me at the time sooner because ultimately that was what started my road back to recovery. Eventually after multiple sessions and discussion with the priest at our local church. I came to the conclusion that my grandmother would not have wanted me to be in this state over her passing. I began to gain peace of mind knowing she was in a better place and started to feel a sense of ease that had been missing for months. My confidence and ambition was practically non existent while in Kingston and slowly it started to return while I was home and helped me to get through such a difficult time in my life and helped Improve my grades and mental state for this past semester. I reflect on who I was before this year and see a much different and less mature person that did not have any grasp on how mental health and depression can affect you and those around you. Moving forward I plan to retake the classes that I have failed in the past to recover my GPA and to get out of academic probation. As well I plan on taking a lighter course load consisting of 3 classes, hiring tutors when I don't understand the content and seeking help from my peers and academic advisors to ensure that I am not overwhelmed when adjusting back into the routine of a University course load. Also I will be consistently accessing the resources of the wellness centre and spend time working with councillors to help maintain a good state of mental health that will help me to succeed and stay focused during the academic year. I will also book appointments with academic advisors to get the best advice when planning the rest of my academic career at Queen's to help ensure my goals of graduating from Queen's University with a acceptable GPA are reached . I am not asking for forgiveness but a second chance so that I can move past this dark phase of my life and onto the next chapter of being the best person that I can possibly be. Below I will attach the required information, such as the needed form and obituary for my grandmother. If there is anything else that you require please feel free to let me know.
My name is Graydon Morrow (20078817) and I am appealing to waive a requirement to withdraw from Queen's University. This past year has been without a doubt the most challenging year of my life facing hardships during the pandemic that took away all my concentration and focus. With the start of this academic year came lots of anxiety for me as the only experience I had with online learning was from the winter term of 2020 when we were forced to go online due to covid. This proved much more challenging of an adjustment than I previously thought. In late October of 2020 I Learned that the retirement home that my grandmother was in was facing a large outbreak of covid 19, within 2 weeks of hearing this news my grandmother was transferred to hospital where she later passed away. The unexpected passing took me entirely off guard and had a profound impact on my mental and well being because of my living situation in Kingston I was unable to travel home to mourn with my family and was stuck in Kingston to figure things out on my own .Mundane tasks such as getting out of bed to do school work or keeping on top of my rent become daunting. I nearly stopped eating and would hardly prepare for assignments and upcoming tests and exams. It was an extremely dark time for me. As the year progressed and my academic standings worsened my fellow peers and family noticed that I was not doing well. This all came to a head when a fellow student I was living with was tested positive for covid 19 and I received a notice from Kingston public health notifying me that I had to stay isolated for 2 weeks. With my already unstable mental health this only took me much deeper into my already prevalent symptoms of depression and anxiety. I was offered a counsellor service over the phone from public health to help me deal with the crippling mental illness I was facing but found it nearly impossible to open up over the phone and got little to no use from the sessions. As the 2 weeks came to a close my housemates noticed that I was in terrible shape. They offered their help and counselling if I ever needed to talk but I foolishly refused. It wasn't until I started getting terrible migraines and brain fog that I realized the environment I was in was terrible and packed up my things and went home . Slowly I began to feel normal coming to terms with what had happened in the previous months but I still felt many symptoms of depression and anxiety. Looking back, the biggest mistake I made was not accessing the resources that were available to me at the time sooner because ultimately that was what started my road back to recovery. Eventually after multiple sessions and discussion with the priest at our local church. I came to the conclusion that my grandmother would not have wanted me to be in this state over her passing. I began to gain peace of mind knowing she was in a better place and started to feel a sense of ease that had been missing for months. My confidence and ambition was practically non existent while in Kingston and slowly it started to return while I was home and helped me to get through such a difficult time in my life and helped Improve my grades and mental state for this past semester. I reflect on who I was before this year and see a much different and less mature person that did not have any grasp on how mental health and depression can affect you and those around you. Moving forward I plan to retake the classes that I have failed in the past to recover my GPA and to get out of academic probation. As well I plan on taking a lighter course load consisting of 3 classes, hiring tutors when I don't understand the content and seeking help from my peers and academic advisors to ensure that I am not overwhelmed when adjusting back into the routine of a University course load. Also I will be consistently accessing the resources of the wellness centre and spend time working with councillors to help maintain a good state of mental health that will help me to succeed and stay focused during the academic year. I will also book appointments with academic advisors to get the best advice when planning the rest of my academic career at Queen's to help ensure my goals of graduating from Queen's University with a acceptable GPA are reached . I am not asking for forgiveness but a second chance so that I can move past this dark phase of my life and onto the next chapter of being the best person that I can possibly be. Below I will attach the required information, such as the needed form and obituary for my grandmother. If there is anything else that you require please feel free to let me know.