By Maylene Yong
Edited by: Sally Li
This is my story of the time when a close family member died last year. I am doing my final year in Computer Science. Last year the courses were complicated enough that I worried about passing the exams. My story starts here.
My sister had died during my exam period. She had died from liver cancer.
She and I were really close.
My mum didn't want to disturb my studies so she not want to tell me until after.
But I got the email after my first week of exams from a really close friend and had tried to apply for special consideration to have exams deferred so that I can attend the funeral back home.
But with RMIT's bureaucratic policies it took weeks for it to be approved. I was in limbo land for a while as I had to apply to the HUB and not to my school who was really understanding about my condition.
In the end it got rejected as RMIT did not understand my feelings
The first night when I heard the news I quickly jumped online to secure a flight back home to Singapore. Within 24 hours I was in Singapore and had to attend the funeral. I was crying uncontrollably.
I was not able to sleep for many days and cried all throughout the night. This went on for months. I was really depressed and wanted to cut myself sometimes. My parents wanted me to be happy so I could not talk about my depression. My grades suffered as such. At the end of that semester I was asked to explain (show cause) to the school. I told them about my special consideration and how it was denied. I got some help from the Student Union and RMIT counseling. I made a complaint and in the end my enrollment got reinstated and my special consideration got accepted.
This was not without many months of stress.
In the end though I passed this semester with flying colours. If only RMIT were more understanding of students. Students you should seek special consideration if a family member yours dies and try and seek help from counseling. At the end of the day its your family that really matters not the marks you get at uni. It doesn't matter if you fail one subject.
Edited by: Sally Li
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| image courtesy of my.opera.com |
This is my story of the time when a close family member died last year. I am doing my final year in Computer Science. Last year the courses were complicated enough that I worried about passing the exams. My story starts here.
My sister had died during my exam period. She had died from liver cancer.
She and I were really close.
My mum didn't want to disturb my studies so she not want to tell me until after.
But I got the email after my first week of exams from a really close friend and had tried to apply for special consideration to have exams deferred so that I can attend the funeral back home.
But with RMIT's bureaucratic policies it took weeks for it to be approved. I was in limbo land for a while as I had to apply to the HUB and not to my school who was really understanding about my condition.
In the end it got rejected as RMIT did not understand my feelings
The first night when I heard the news I quickly jumped online to secure a flight back home to Singapore. Within 24 hours I was in Singapore and had to attend the funeral. I was crying uncontrollably.
I was not able to sleep for many days and cried all throughout the night. This went on for months. I was really depressed and wanted to cut myself sometimes. My parents wanted me to be happy so I could not talk about my depression. My grades suffered as such. At the end of that semester I was asked to explain (show cause) to the school. I told them about my special consideration and how it was denied. I got some help from the Student Union and RMIT counseling. I made a complaint and in the end my enrollment got reinstated and my special consideration got accepted.
This was not without many months of stress.
In the end though I passed this semester with flying colours. If only RMIT were more understanding of students. Students you should seek special consideration if a family member yours dies and try and seek help from counseling. At the end of the day its your family that really matters not the marks you get at uni. It doesn't matter if you fail one subject.
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