Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean Stephenson,
I am appealing Faculty¿¿s decision that I must withdraw from Queen¿¿s University for one year. I¿¿m really sorry about sending this letter late. Thank you for giving me a chance to introspect and allowing me to explain my extenuating circumstances. I sincerely hope that you will reinstate me for next semester.
Before I explain my circumstances, please allow me to introduce myself. I will try to make it as terse as possible. My official name is Xu, but people usually call my English name, Henry, since it is easy for them to pronounce. I came to Canada from China five years ago. I used to be an arts student who likes writing articles and always did well in history, politics and Chinese courses when I was in China. However, I changed thoroughly after I came to Canada. Not just my name, but also my personality and routine. I started my studies from grade ten, and I met a few older Chinese students there. They told me studying math and science was the only way to let the ESL students perform well in academics. I took their advices, and I knew that if I want to do well in those classes, I had to work harder than others because they were my weaknesses. So, I made a rule that I have to obey, which is ¿¿never procrastinate an intraday problem to tomorrow¿. I did follow it in the rest of my high school¿¿s studies. My classes were generally over at 2:30pm, but I always left at 4:00pm just so that I could ask my teachers and understand all the knowledge being taught on that day. The effort did pay off, in the following years at high school, I got the top mark in ESL, math, chemistry, calculus one after another, the top mark on grade eleven Waterloo math contest in Durham Region, and three honour rolls. As for extracurricular activities, I joined cricket club and robotics club. I chronologically worked at school lunch program to help those disabled children, as a pharmacy assistant in Shoppers for Co-op, as a math tutor at school, and as a page at a public library.
I was a hardworking, optimistic and smart student in the eyes of others, but only I know that the Henry they see is not the person I want to be. I¿¿m not the person who enjoys achievement, by contrast, I enjoy more on the process to the success. As for accomplishments themselves, they have become a kind of pressure and burden to me. I¿¿ve never shared my success with my friends, so the most of things I mentioned above are only known by few people. I don¿¿t like to show off; I don¿¿t want them to feel any pressure or overestimate my ability when they get along with me; and the most important reason is that I don¿¿t want to let down the people who have high expectations on me, especially my parents. Yes, Henry is caring too much about what others think, and he is literally living for others. In order to follow his principle, he can do many things that he does not like personally. In the other hand, I knew my life belongs to myself in the deep, so everytime I got exhausted for studying, I told myself that I would be able to learn things I enjoy after I get into university. Now, I understand this thought is naive.
I got admissions from all the programs I applied. Most of my friends went to McMaster, and I didn¿¿t go with them, although I got the offer. From my perspective today, I think I was kind of arrogant at that time. I believed I could make friends easily at a new environment, but the reality has proven that I was totally mistaken. Then, I needed to make a decision on choosing either general science or kinesiology at Queen¿¿s University. The answer seems to be obvious, but at that moment, I chose general science. Until now, I¿¿m still kind of confused why I did not choose the other one, and the only reason I can come up with is probably just like what I mentioned before, that I enjoy the process more than achievement. When I had to choose to get one of the achievements, I was lost because it was the question I¿¿ve never encountered, and after three years math and science studying, I had an illusion that I like science and I would live on it in the rest of my life. At least, I don¿¿t regret anything I have done and any decisions I have made in the past, since I know there is no ¿¿what if¿ in history.
I admit that I did not work hard in the last two years, because I felt the knowledge in those courses were not what I want to study. Here, I need to clarify that the situation today is all made by myself, and my professors were all responsible and competent. I believe I¿¿m still able to be hardworking and persistent, but the prerequisite is that I have to find a target that I want to procure, especially in university, the things I¿¿m studying will probably decide my future career. I know this may not sound tenable and persuasive, but it really is the reason why I didn¿¿t perform well in the past two years. I was also trying to look for my calling in the past, and I have found that math and science were not the things I want to learn. I did pre-life science courses in the first year, and chemistry and math courses in the second year. To be honest, I did not like them at all. There were three courses (BIO 103, CHEM 212 and MATH 112) that I knew I would probably fail. I did not drop them because I want myself to maintain busy, and I have never thought about the failure in these courses would make me withdraw one day. I admit that I didn¿¿t look at school website very often except OnQ, which is why I submit this letter late. I have never been informed that I need to withdraw next year until I failed to select courses for Fall Term 2019. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience I made to you and the other members. I¿¿m so sorry about it.