THIS IS NOT A NICE STORY: the hell I've been living from May 2020-April 2022

To everyone that remembers this blog title, look again. There's one crucial difference: May 2020-April 2021 has become May 2020-April 2022. It has almost been a year, and I am still living this hell. The University of Leeds have dragged on my case and given me no kind of apology whatsoever as of yet. The claims I have made have gone practically ignored, or at least, they have tried to make this case drag on for as long as possible that we either all forget the acts of injustice they inflicted on me, or I just get so low and depressed that I give up.

For what it's worth guys, with all your love and support, I am still standing my ground. I am standing strong and proud. I am waiting patiently, but also chasing them up on a weekly basis to ensured I don't go forgotten again. I won't let them get away with what they have done. I accepted the lower degree classification so this could be over faster. They assured me claims take around 1 month to six weeks. If I knew I was still going to be here a year later, I wouldn't have made such sacrifices to the degree I have paid so much for; the degree I worked so hard to achieve. 

I cannot put into words how heartbreaking it is to still be here. I cannot stress enough how deeply this has cut and I cannot begin to describe how tired and sick I am of it all. However, so that this blog post isn't just a rambling of my depressive emotions and hurt feelings towards the University of Leeds, and to ensure this post becomes one of actual substance, which I can refer back to should I need to do so in legal proceedings or whatever, I am going to write down a few bullet points to give a quick overview of what has been happening since April 2021. (If you need any background about what happened before April 2021, please see my blog post titled 'THIS IS NOT A NICE STORY: the hell I've been living from May 2020-April 2021' which can be found via this LINK TO BLOG POST)

Since April 2021:

• I received my degree in the spring
• I start the university's formal written complaints process
• I am told I need to provide a timeline of events, a letter structured with what happened, what university policies were broken, what I want as a solution and such details. I also need to provide physical evidence of what happened and also evidence of the impact to my health, finances etc
• I am denied a mentor or any form of disability support to help me work on the documents they need me to submit 
• I work on the documents, by myself, jumping through all the stupid hoops and giving all the details they said I "must" give in order to file a complaint. By the time I am finished, the document is nearly 15,000 words, and that is not considering the huge file containing the masses of awful emails I had received from the university, which I submitted as a part of my evidence.
• I submit the complaint within the first couple of days of October. 
• I am told I must wait about a month, maybe 6 weeks, and to not contact the university within that time as they have to focus on the complaint and they are too busy to answer our emails.
• End of November comes and I chase up the status. I am told the nature of the complaint means it'll take a little longer. I am told I'll have the solution by the end of the year.
• January arrives and I chase up the status again. I am told I will have a resolution by the 15th January.
• 15th of January comes and goes. I chase up the complaint. I am told that I need to "understand that the seriousness of the complaint" and that the deadline has been pushed to the end of January.
• At the start of February I chase the university again. I am told, again, that I have to appreciate that the complaint is serious and therefore the deadline is being pushed to the end of February.
• Last week of February I email to ask if the resolution is looking to still be that week. I am completely ignored.
• End of that week I email again to chase up the resolution. I received an autoreply saying that the member of staff is on annual leave until March. 
• I email back very very upset and tell them that the autoreply was an insult and somebody needs to email me ASAP or I need somebody else assigning to the case.
• Today I receive an email, yet again, explaining to me that I need to understand that my "allegations" are "serious" so I will not get a resolution until the end of March. I reply to this email asking for a call to be set up with me and the head of student cases. I tell them I need assurance that the end of March will actually mark the end of the case and that I will actually get a resolution so I can move on with my life. I am not very hopeful that I will get any of the above.

Honestly, I don't know why I am documenting this on a blog post. I guess, I want to update those of you that have been asking. I want to have some sort of record if I have to take the case to court, because I am so upset and stressed that I am sure I will have blank parts of my memory when I think back to these traumatic days. Honestly though, what I really want cannot be achieved by a blog post. I just want a resolution and to move on with my life. I want to never think about the University of Leeds ever again and I just want to try heal. I know it's going to take time, but the longer this goes on, the longer it will take for me to build myself up again. Unfortunately, I think the university knows that, and having me weak and feeble in fact makes their situation a lot better. After all, a weak, broken girl, can't stand strong against them... right?

[To everyone who has supported me these last two years: your love keeps me strong. I am doing this for you. I love you all and you help me not give in. I won't let you down, I promise.]

P.S. For everyone else asking, Japan is still happening, they officially opened their borders today (01/03/22) and Sam and I are currently waiting on the extra covid/vaccine-related certificate-documents needed for our visas, which my employer is processing as we speak. ETA to be in Japan is to come, I'll blog all about it as and when we find out stuff. Thanks again for all your love guys, hope I have better news for you soon <3