Petition Letter
Academic Appeal (Late Drop)
Hello,
My names Matthew Mullin and I¿¿m currently a second year Economics student. Unfortunately, the past two years have been very difficult for me for a variety of reasons. I have been dealing with mental health issues for more than a year now. Over the past term, everything has become increasingly more difficult for a few reasons. To fully understand my story and struggles I wanted to give some information about myself.
The earliest childhood memories I have are on the ice, hockey has always been my biggest motivator and passion in life. In grade 11 I was playing Jr. A hockey in Ottawa and was working towards my ultimate goal of playing NCAA hockey in the US. Towards the end of my hockey season I suffered a brutal shoulder injury which I had operated on that summer. This put an abrupt stop on my hockey goals as I could no longer play contact sports without the increase risk of damaging the reconstructed ligaments. This was the hardest news I ever got in my life and definitely had a large impact on me. I spent my grade 12 year working harder than ever before trying to increase my grades to get into the Smith School of Business. I graduated from Ashbury College with a 91 top six and ended up accepting my offer into the BAH program here at Queens. Although I was thrilled about the news of my acceptance the first signs of my mental health issues sparked the summer before my 1st year. That summer I put on close to 36 lbs and never felt worse about myself before. For the first time in my life I had little to no confidence, this was terrifying for me since it was all so new.
When I arrived to queens in early September I was extremely excited and nervous to be moving away, much like every 1st year student. The second term in my second year got increasingly difficult. I started to develop severe anxiety problems not only with school but with everyday life. I kept quite while dealing with all of these issues and tried to persevere to get through 1st year. When finals came in late April my anxiety hit an all-time peak and that¿¿s when I had my first anxiety attack while studying for my final Economics exam. This left me in complete distraught for close to an hour. Nothing I tried could calm me down and unfortunately lead me to having a profound feeling of weakness. Following my first anxiety attack, studying for the rest of my finals was very difficult for me. There was a constant fear of putting myself in the same place I was in only days before. This lead me to procrastinate a lot of my planned studies which ultimately hurt me more in the future. On the day of my first exam I had another bad anxiety attack which made me feel like a failure and this is the first time I ever felt like I wanted to give up. After opening up to my parents following the ¿¿attack¿ they told me to reach out to a specialist. After speaking to a therapist in the Wellness Centre I developed some skills to help me control my anxiety. I did end up getting through my finals but this was the first time my mental health took impact on my schooling.
After spending the summer at home with my parents I came back to school in September 2018 excited for a fresh start. Unfortunately, this wasn¿¿t the case, after settling into my new house with my six housemates my mental health took a turn for the worse. I never felt more out of place and confused in my life and I started to feel quite depressed. The hardest part about this was I didn¿¿t have a reason why I felt this way. This was the hardest part for me because I didn¿¿t understand why I felt so out of place and unmotivated. I started to think of my-self as weak since I couldn¿¿t figure out a reason for all of my issues. All of these feelings were so new to me that I had no idea what to do. I carried on in life suffering in silence and this quickly started to affect every aspect of my life. I started to lose relationships with friends, I was often irritable, I stopped calling my parents as often, and stopped really caring about everything in life. I ultimately felt like I had given up and there was nothing I could do. A good day for me was if I got out of the house, things like going to the gym or going to class seemed so out of reach. For this reason, I fell behind in most of my classes. I would scramble to finish assignments and study for tests last minute which brought me more stress and anxiety. At the end of the day I felt trapped and didn¿¿t know what to do. On February 27th the unexpected passing of Alexander Rabczak, a childhood friend. He took his own life after dealing with depression for multiple years, this was my final straw. The news crushed me and lead me to giving up and feeling worse than I ever have. I felt as if nothing mattered anymore and unfortunately, I had no idea on how to escape the mess I was in. I spent the majority of my days lying in bed, not going to classes, missing assignments, ultimately living the life I never thought I¿¿d be living.
That was until very recently when I reconnected with someone who I was very close with in high school, she opened up to me about her experiences with mental health issues. She explained how much opening up about everything has helped her overcome her struggles and face them head on. I was inspired by her story and made a very difficult call to my parents. I explained everything that was going on and apologized profusely to them for lying to them about my well-being. Although this was very difficult, this conversation made me feel like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders. I explained to them that I had fallen behind in school and have really felt quite depressed for the past few months. My parents recommended that I reached out to a counselor at school as well as a therapist. I met with a counsellor at the Student Wellness Centre on April 1st and opened up about my issues. This conversation calmed me down a lot since I learnt about to appeal options I have available to me. This appeal would grant me the time to go home and spend time with my parents. I believe this time is crucial for me because I would be able to focus on bettering my wellbeing without any distractions. I have my first appointment with a therapist I got referred to me at the start of May. I hope that I will be able to figure out my issues with my Mental Health allowing me to come back in September as the driven student I know I can be. I hate what I¿¿ve become more than anyone and can promise I will do everything I can to succeed in the future. Thank you for the consideration.
Yours Truly,
Matt Mullin
Hello,
My names Matthew Mullin and I¿¿m currently a second year Economics student. Unfortunately, the past two years have been very difficult for me for a variety of reasons. I have been dealing with mental health issues for more than a year now. Over the past term, everything has become increasingly more difficult for a few reasons. To fully understand my story and struggles I wanted to give some information about myself.
The earliest childhood memories I have are on the ice, hockey has always been my biggest motivator and passion in life. In grade 11 I was playing Jr. A hockey in Ottawa and was working towards my ultimate goal of playing NCAA hockey in the US. Towards the end of my hockey season I suffered a brutal shoulder injury which I had operated on that summer. This put an abrupt stop on my hockey goals as I could no longer play contact sports without the increase risk of damaging the reconstructed ligaments. This was the hardest news I ever got in my life and definitely had a large impact on me. I spent my grade 12 year working harder than ever before trying to increase my grades to get into the Smith School of Business. I graduated from Ashbury College with a 91 top six and ended up accepting my offer into the BAH program here at Queens. Although I was thrilled about the news of my acceptance the first signs of my mental health issues sparked the summer before my 1st year. That summer I put on close to 36 lbs and never felt worse about myself before. For the first time in my life I had little to no confidence, this was terrifying for me since it was all so new.
When I arrived to queens in early September I was extremely excited and nervous to be moving away, much like every 1st year student. The second term in my second year got increasingly difficult. I started to develop severe anxiety problems not only with school but with everyday life. I kept quite while dealing with all of these issues and tried to persevere to get through 1st year. When finals came in late April my anxiety hit an all-time peak and that¿¿s when I had my first anxiety attack while studying for my final Economics exam. This left me in complete distraught for close to an hour. Nothing I tried could calm me down and unfortunately lead me to having a profound feeling of weakness. Following my first anxiety attack, studying for the rest of my finals was very difficult for me. There was a constant fear of putting myself in the same place I was in only days before. This lead me to procrastinate a lot of my planned studies which ultimately hurt me more in the future. On the day of my first exam I had another bad anxiety attack which made me feel like a failure and this is the first time I ever felt like I wanted to give up. After opening up to my parents following the ¿¿attack¿ they told me to reach out to a specialist. After speaking to a therapist in the Wellness Centre I developed some skills to help me control my anxiety. I did end up getting through my finals but this was the first time my mental health took impact on my schooling.
After spending the summer at home with my parents I came back to school in September 2018 excited for a fresh start. Unfortunately, this wasn¿¿t the case, after settling into my new house with my six housemates my mental health took a turn for the worse. I never felt more out of place and confused in my life and I started to feel quite depressed. The hardest part about this was I didn¿¿t have a reason why I felt this way. This was the hardest part for me because I didn¿¿t understand why I felt so out of place and unmotivated. I started to think of my-self as weak since I couldn¿¿t figure out a reason for all of my issues. All of these feelings were so new to me that I had no idea what to do. I carried on in life suffering in silence and this quickly started to affect every aspect of my life. I started to lose relationships with friends, I was often irritable, I stopped calling my parents as often, and stopped really caring about everything in life. I ultimately felt like I had given up and there was nothing I could do. A good day for me was if I got out of the house, things like going to the gym or going to class seemed so out of reach. For this reason, I fell behind in most of my classes. I would scramble to finish assignments and study for tests last minute which brought me more stress and anxiety. At the end of the day I felt trapped and didn¿¿t know what to do. On February 27th the unexpected passing of Alexander Rabczak, a childhood friend. He took his own life after dealing with depression for multiple years, this was my final straw. The news crushed me and lead me to giving up and feeling worse than I ever have. I felt as if nothing mattered anymore and unfortunately, I had no idea on how to escape the mess I was in. I spent the majority of my days lying in bed, not going to classes, missing assignments, ultimately living the life I never thought I¿¿d be living.
That was until very recently when I reconnected with someone who I was very close with in high school, she opened up to me about her experiences with mental health issues. She explained how much opening up about everything has helped her overcome her struggles and face them head on. I was inspired by her story and made a very difficult call to my parents. I explained everything that was going on and apologized profusely to them for lying to them about my well-being. Although this was very difficult, this conversation made me feel like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders. I explained to them that I had fallen behind in school and have really felt quite depressed for the past few months. My parents recommended that I reached out to a counselor at school as well as a therapist. I met with a counsellor at the Student Wellness Centre on April 1st and opened up about my issues. This conversation calmed me down a lot since I learnt about to appeal options I have available to me. This appeal would grant me the time to go home and spend time with my parents. I believe this time is crucial for me because I would be able to focus on bettering my wellbeing without any distractions. I have my first appointment with a therapist I got referred to me at the start of May. I hope that I will be able to figure out my issues with my Mental Health allowing me to come back in September as the driven student I know I can be. I hate what I¿¿ve become more than anyone and can promise I will do everything I can to succeed in the future. Thank you for the consideration.
Yours Truly,
Matt Mullin