Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I've been dealing with some really tough circumstances recently, and I wanted to give some context to my academic performance over the past few years. It’s been a very long journey that’s led to where I’m at right now, and I honestly can’t believe the place I’m in at this point. Before I came to Queen’s I was an A student. I had a 91% average and was both passionate about my studies and excited to take advantage of all that Queen’s had to offer me and was excited to embark on a new journey away from the turmoil at home (my father struggled with depression and alcoholism and was in and out of treatment my entire childhood). Then I got sick, so sick that I had to return back home after losing 20 pounds in the span of a month. As such, I dropped my first semester courses and went into the spring hoping for a fresh start. Fast forward to the fall of my second year, my Dad shared with me that he had a biopsy for a clump of cells in his mouth that his dentist thought was mouth cancer, a few days before my final exams in December. (Luckily, it turned out to be pre-cancerous cells, which he has gotten removed, and I pray that is the end of it). I was an absolute mess and couldn’t get a wink of sleep in the 48 hours leading up to my first exam, and on the advice of an academic advisor, I deferred my exams to January. Over the break, my anxiety reached peaks I had never experienced before, and when I went to write the first of my deferred exams, I had a panic attack and fainted. After spending the night in the ER I was discharged and didn’t write any of the deferred exams (some of which I still have yet to write). However, as much as it pains me to say, that was just the beginning of what has been perhaps the toughest two years of my life.

Last spring, both of my grandmothers and my grandfather spent extensive time in the hospital, with my grandfather on my Dad's side unfortunately passing away this summer, a few days before my Dad's 55th birthday. This sent my Dad, who has long dealt with alcohol addiction issues, into a spiral that eventually led to him, once again, checking into rehab this past fall and again this spring. Whether due to the alcohol or other factors, my Dad's memory had been declining at a concerning rate over the past few years, and recently, the potential reality of Dementia/Alzheimer's has really set in. This led me to rapidly spiral downward into depression and just an overall, really dark place mentally this past year. I lost all my motivation to the point where, despite completing assignments, I would procrastinate handing them in before ultimately missing the deadline altogether. Compounded with both my anxiety and depression, I would frequently have sleepless nights and debilitating migraines, both of which became amplified to the point of being practically unavoidable around high stress times such as exam/midterm season.

Before most exams I would write, similar to how I felt after learning that m dad might have cancer, I would spend the entire night laying in bed trying to fall asleep with no success (and sometimes the night before as well, leaving me sleepless for 48 hours), and as you might expect both my memory and overall functional ability was absolutely terrible and was greatly reflected in my performance. I would get debilitating migraines, some of which were bad enough that I wouldn’t write the exam altogether, but I felt embarrassed by the state I was in and would write other exams, which, in hindsight, I probably shouldn't have written, given the state I was in. When I did write these exams, the pounding in my head was so bad that I had to keep rereading the questions to remind myself what I was doing, I struggled to remember how to solve questions I'd practiced solving ten times over and basic tasks were taking 4-5x longer to do.

Altogether, this had led to, in my opinion, a complete disaster of a first three years at Queen’s that in no way reflect the student I am at all. Regarding the mental health issues I've been dealing with, I really should have gotten help sooner instead of waiting so long, but quite honestly, I was really embarrassed by the state I was in, and I procrastinated dealing with some of my issues. I know it must seem almost unbelievable for all this to happen in just the span of a few years, and trust me I wish it wasn't the case, but for good measure I've attached my Dad's post-surgery documents, my grandfather's obituary (which I’m named in), medial documents of my ER visit after my panic attack/fainting episode and a confirmation of my anxiety conditiom from my doctor. I would also be more than willing to provide any other information/documentation if necessary.

I'm not writing this to make you feel sorry for me, but to provide context to the external factors that have exacerbated the anxiety/depression I already deal with. Once again, the past three years are in no way a representation of the student I am, and I know I can be a high achieving student with the help I’m getting this summer. I pray that I will be able to continue my journey at Queen’s this fall and would be so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to return and achieve the goals I set for myself when I started my journey.

Thank you for taking the time to read this,
Hayden