Petition Letter
I am writing to appeal the decision of my suspension from Queens University for the 2019-2020 year. I began my second year at Queens following a four-month episode of depression. I have never experienced this before. When I arrived at Queens in September everything was good and I immediately felt much better than I had throughout the summer. I was attending all my classes and doing the majority of the required work. However, right before the December exam period I began to feel this way again and unfortunately did not write my December exams. (Queens has documentation of this which I am happy to resend if necessary). I was unable to play hockey or see my friends for the entire month of December. My parents encouraged me to return to school for the beginning of the second term but I still was not functioning to my fullest ability. I was still upset and stressed about missing my December exams and was not sure how to handle that situation, unfortunately instead of facing it I just attempted to avoid it. I did go to an academic advisor to see what my best options were and how to go about the situation. I was told to appeal the half year courses and that the academic office would speak to my two full year course teachers about weighing the final exam more heavily. My appeals for the fall courses were granted however I never received confirmation if the weighting on my finals would be granted. I am aware that I was contacted by an academic advisor but I did not return the calls. I was avoiding dealing with and confronting the situation. I did not make an attempt to put matters into my own hands which was a huge mistake. The reason I did not take action was because I was extremely stressed, overwhelmed, embarrassed and anxious about the situation and did not want to tell my friends who I was around constantly so I just avoided the situation which is a huge regret of mine. In April, I wrote my exams even though I knew I would knew I wouldn¿¿t do well on most of them as the second semester was also very hard for me because I was unable to attend most of my classes and missed many assignments. During this past year I did not reach out for help as I was embarrassed however this upcoming year I will do so if I ever feel this way again because I do not want to compromise this opportunity and I don¿¿t want to be in this situation again.