Petition Letter
To Dr. Johanne Bénard,
I am appealing the Faculty's Requirement to Withdraw for a Minimum of One Year. I am also appealing to request an extension for BIOL 103 (Summer, 2017), CHEM 113 (Summer, 2017), CHEM 114 (Summer, 2017), and LAW 201 (Summer, 2017). Due to extenuating health circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to fulfill my academic responsibilities and subsequently failed to pass my courses. I apologize for significantly missing the deadline, but making such a decision required a great deal of thought as well as much communication between family members and physicians. After much thought and careful consideration, I believe that continuing my studies this school year would be the best course of action.
For much of my adult life, I have been dealing with chronic migraines. This past year the frequency and intensity of these migraines have increased significantly. During my first year at Queen's University, I experienced these migraines more often than naught, which made an already difficult transition even harder. These migraines made everything from social interactions to school work incredibly difficult, preventing me from going to class, from completing work, or from asking others for help. They lasted anywhere from an hour to several days, a magnitude of which I am not used to, making it extraordinarily difficult for me to handle. The pain they caused made even simple tasks and calculations difficult, and I quickly realized that studying in this state wasn't an option. This gave me significantly less time to complete the work other students had all day to do. Being the first in my family to go to university puts an incredible amount of pressure on me, and my parents are sacrificing a lot to send me here. Subsequently, I didn't want to worry them with my increase in migraines. Unlike other medical conditions, migraines are often seen as a convenient excuse. As a result, I refrained from sharing this with anyone as I was incredibly embarrassed. For all these reasons, I quickly fell into a cycle of falling behind and trying to catch up only to fall further behind and became very quiet. I spent most of my time in my dorm room either with a migraine or working on schoolwork. This lead many of my close friends, as well as my don, to worry about me as it was a big shift from the very social and involved student I'm known to be. They pushed me to seek medical help, and eventually, I was put on Amitriptyline, with the hope that it would help my migraines. But after taking it for a month I found no relief, and I began to believe that there would be no improvement. On March 9th, I went to the doctor's office to discuss my migraines, and it was there that the doctor decided to increase my dosage. Yet after months, the medication still wasn't making a positive impact on the migraines, and it wasn't until exam week that I decided to up my dosage again. This dosage worked the best, but it was too late and I ended up missing most of my exams. After talking to Dr. Kawaja, he advised that I also take the summer months to put my health first. I used the break to figure out what lifestyle would work best for me, as well as experiment with a variety of different natural remedies as I was desperate to find anything that would relieve my migraines. After tweaking my diet so that I ate healthier, going to the gym daily, taking my medication, and meditating every morning I was finally able to bring my migraines down significantly. Unfortunately, this was a slow process with bumps along the road. I was unable to complete the schoolwork for my summer courses due to both the migraines and these drastic changes to my lifestyle and ended up missing my exams. The increase in my dosage also came with new side effects that I still needed to get used to. Despite this unfortunate neglect, I'm glad that I took the time to get on top of the situation, and I am confident that I have finally overcome and closed this difficult chapter in my life. It's lead me to make very healthy and positive changes to my lifestyle, and I'm looking forward to utilizing them this school year. These past several weeks have proven well, I've been going to the classes I'm enrolled in this semester and completing the assigned work on time. I realize that it is uncommon for a Requirement to Withdraw for a Minimum of One Year to be waived, but I also believe this a unique situation with extenuating circumstances beyond my control that does warrant the waiving of such a decision. Allowing me to continue studying at Queen's this year and allowing me an extension on my summer courses, while keeping me on academic probation, would be the best route. I really hope you can understand the difficulty I was going through, and I hope you'll give me the opportunity to not let my migraines delay my academic career any further. I have attached more detailed information about my migraines from my family physician, and if you require any additional information or documentation please let me know as I would be more than happy to do so.
My academic plan is to major in Biochemistry, but first I would like to complete the perquisites for the major. As such I would like to finish the summer courses I was unable to complete, take STATS 263 in class, and drop PHGY 214. I'm confident I can handle a course load of 4 courses as the reason for my lack of success in my first year wasn't due to a lack of motivation or competence, but rather migraines which took up large chunks of time preventing me from doing anything else. I have finally gained control over these migraines, and as I continue to talk to my physician on a regular basis, I am confident that this school year will finally go smoothly and I can return to being the focused, involved and impressive student I once was.
I am appealing the Faculty's Requirement to Withdraw for a Minimum of One Year. I am also appealing to request an extension for BIOL 103 (Summer, 2017), CHEM 113 (Summer, 2017), CHEM 114 (Summer, 2017), and LAW 201 (Summer, 2017). Due to extenuating health circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to fulfill my academic responsibilities and subsequently failed to pass my courses. I apologize for significantly missing the deadline, but making such a decision required a great deal of thought as well as much communication between family members and physicians. After much thought and careful consideration, I believe that continuing my studies this school year would be the best course of action.
For much of my adult life, I have been dealing with chronic migraines. This past year the frequency and intensity of these migraines have increased significantly. During my first year at Queen's University, I experienced these migraines more often than naught, which made an already difficult transition even harder. These migraines made everything from social interactions to school work incredibly difficult, preventing me from going to class, from completing work, or from asking others for help. They lasted anywhere from an hour to several days, a magnitude of which I am not used to, making it extraordinarily difficult for me to handle. The pain they caused made even simple tasks and calculations difficult, and I quickly realized that studying in this state wasn't an option. This gave me significantly less time to complete the work other students had all day to do. Being the first in my family to go to university puts an incredible amount of pressure on me, and my parents are sacrificing a lot to send me here. Subsequently, I didn't want to worry them with my increase in migraines. Unlike other medical conditions, migraines are often seen as a convenient excuse. As a result, I refrained from sharing this with anyone as I was incredibly embarrassed. For all these reasons, I quickly fell into a cycle of falling behind and trying to catch up only to fall further behind and became very quiet. I spent most of my time in my dorm room either with a migraine or working on schoolwork. This lead many of my close friends, as well as my don, to worry about me as it was a big shift from the very social and involved student I'm known to be. They pushed me to seek medical help, and eventually, I was put on Amitriptyline, with the hope that it would help my migraines. But after taking it for a month I found no relief, and I began to believe that there would be no improvement. On March 9th, I went to the doctor's office to discuss my migraines, and it was there that the doctor decided to increase my dosage. Yet after months, the medication still wasn't making a positive impact on the migraines, and it wasn't until exam week that I decided to up my dosage again. This dosage worked the best, but it was too late and I ended up missing most of my exams. After talking to Dr. Kawaja, he advised that I also take the summer months to put my health first. I used the break to figure out what lifestyle would work best for me, as well as experiment with a variety of different natural remedies as I was desperate to find anything that would relieve my migraines. After tweaking my diet so that I ate healthier, going to the gym daily, taking my medication, and meditating every morning I was finally able to bring my migraines down significantly. Unfortunately, this was a slow process with bumps along the road. I was unable to complete the schoolwork for my summer courses due to both the migraines and these drastic changes to my lifestyle and ended up missing my exams. The increase in my dosage also came with new side effects that I still needed to get used to. Despite this unfortunate neglect, I'm glad that I took the time to get on top of the situation, and I am confident that I have finally overcome and closed this difficult chapter in my life. It's lead me to make very healthy and positive changes to my lifestyle, and I'm looking forward to utilizing them this school year. These past several weeks have proven well, I've been going to the classes I'm enrolled in this semester and completing the assigned work on time. I realize that it is uncommon for a Requirement to Withdraw for a Minimum of One Year to be waived, but I also believe this a unique situation with extenuating circumstances beyond my control that does warrant the waiving of such a decision. Allowing me to continue studying at Queen's this year and allowing me an extension on my summer courses, while keeping me on academic probation, would be the best route. I really hope you can understand the difficulty I was going through, and I hope you'll give me the opportunity to not let my migraines delay my academic career any further. I have attached more detailed information about my migraines from my family physician, and if you require any additional information or documentation please let me know as I would be more than happy to do so.
My academic plan is to major in Biochemistry, but first I would like to complete the perquisites for the major. As such I would like to finish the summer courses I was unable to complete, take STATS 263 in class, and drop PHGY 214. I'm confident I can handle a course load of 4 courses as the reason for my lack of success in my first year wasn't due to a lack of motivation or competence, but rather migraines which took up large chunks of time preventing me from doing anything else. I have finally gained control over these migraines, and as I continue to talk to my physician on a regular basis, I am confident that this school year will finally go smoothly and I can return to being the focused, involved and impressive student I once was.