Academic Plan
As per my future plan, it is already in place; I plan to continue with it as it has been a great source of recovery for me, both mental health wise, and physically in my schoolwork, as my grades are on an upwards trend to recovery. Since February of 2018, I have been meeting to discuss my issues and self-care practices almost every other week with a culture counsellor, Dr. Arunima Khanna of Student Wellness Services. She has been a great source of support through my second semester, understanding how my issues relate to my background and culture, always urging me on knowing that my sadness will pass, and not allowing me to fall into my sorrow, exactly what I needed to make my second semester a turnaround. Because I decided to live in Kingston over the summer, I have been fortunate enough to be able to see her these months without halt, which has been very helpful. I have also been on an anti-depressant to help manage my emotions and mood, greatly stabilizing such, and allowing me to continually go to class and finish my schoolwork on time. Finally, on occasion, another practice is seeing the crisis counsellor Lorie, when I feel a spike in negative emotions oncoming, to prohibit them from developing further. Going forward I am taking only 4 courses per semester, as it is much more of a balance for my school and self-care. I am also looking into taking a Kingston General Hospital recommended mental health program named ITTP, which is an intense self-care training program that has seen great results with other Queen¿¿s students. In addition, during the second semester I was finally able to get my paperwork through to be inducted into Queen¿¿s Student Accessibility Services, to prevent my grades from being damaged if I do have a day or two where my mood isn¿¿t well enough to go to class. Finally, I am working with professors from my faculty, Haley Everson, my QSAS advisor, and Dr. Arunima to choose the best courses that work with my schedule, mental health abilities, and interests, in order to give me my best shot at succeeding here at Queen¿¿s.