Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: The past year I have been struggling with depression, which in the past few months became encumbering and took a heavy toll on my academic performance. The decline in my mental health put me in headspace in which I became very disconnected from everything, especially my academics. My depression made it very difficult for me to apply myself as well it hindered my drive and desire to do well. During the winter term this year I went to a place mentally of feeling like there was no point in putting effort into anything, let alone challenging or applying myself to my courses. I was unable to look past what I was a feeling and did not envision myself in a future in which I would see the benefits or consequences of the actions towards my courses. I truly gave up on myself and believed I would not see the end of this term, it became very difficult for me to attentively participate and attend tutorials or significantly engage in course materials to produce adequate work for my courses. My issues with my mental health are not simply explained as I am beginning to work towards being able to understand them myself. My depression truly brought out the worst me in and frankly made me the worse version of myself. Being depressed I wasn¿¿t eating or sleeping regularly which led to me missing classes and falling behind which led to my depression making me believe there was not a point trying and for the first time I truly gave up on myself which spiralled even further, disconnecting more and more. This had caused me to fall so far behind in POLS242 and POLS264 that by the time I realized what a toxic cycle I let myself fall into the toll on these courses was beyond repair. Before I became depressed, I would have considered myself a person who would use every resource I had to reach a level of success and I enjoyed my program and engaging with my courses to develop my academic skills and I find my actions and thoughts over the past year almost appalling. Recently I began to realize and accept my mental health challenges which have driven me to use the resources I have now to correct where I went wrong, which is why I am writing this appeal. I know for a fact that due to my depression I will fail both POLS242 and POLS246 and I would not forgive myself if I don¿¿t use every resource now to minimize the penalties I will face from these due to these courses.

I genuinely want to work my hardest to not only deal with my mental health issues but also set myself up for academic success in the future. To do so I have discussed with my doctor, Lea Rossiter coping mechanism to avoid these behaviour and habits occurring again as well I plan on starting counselling for me to understand and battle my depression more effectively. As well I will try my best to notice the beginning stages of this behaviour and reach out to my doctors as well as the mental health resources at Queens. Furthermore, In terms of academics I plan on dropping my minor to allow my focus more on my Major-related courses and lighten my workload, again I have made note of academic resources at queens such as SASS and services offered by student wellness in which I plan to use if needed in the future.