By five years old, most children have learned how to respect authority, how to pay attention in class, how to socialize. This early, the ladder of children that have had traumatic experiences or have not learned certain lessons become more inclined to take out their pain out on other children, bullying them by picking on them and harassing them. This hostility is usually taken and obeyed by the victim, forming their anxiety and self assurance issues early on. This is extremely harmful to both parties, creating potential future mental health issues for the bullied, and keeping the trauma and pain inside of the bully, giving them no friends or outlet to empathize with their hidden aspects. The root of bullying isn’t often the bully themselves, but their traumatic past or lack of support. In becoming a psychologist, I hope to help create a better atmosphere and support system for children in schools. A place where someone being bullied feels safe to talk about it, and a place where a bully can trust that regardless of consequences, they will not be judged, but rather greeted with support. I believe that social media and advertising is extremely important. At my private high school, every month there were posters for the “... Awareness Month,” For Suicide Awareness Month, or Mental Health Awareness Month, the posters were replaced with something of a complete different subject. My school counselor admitted that the year I was in a mental health facility recovering, four other high school students were in one as well. Because of a lack of awareness and support throughout all school systems, children, families, and society have suffered. Normalizing mental health could increase funding, bringing mental health support to places that cannot afford it, or families that are in need of it. It could make children feel like they truly have a place here and always have a friend. Increasing awareness is decreasing suicide, murder, criminal cases in general. Increasing awareness also helps more people go to college, creating a lower unemployment rate, letting people go into the mental health field to help people if they want to. I have been to two children's mental health facilities, the first when I was fifteen. As much as some of the staff wanted to help us, there was an extreme lack of resources, nurses, and psychologists that were trained to help those that really needed it. Instead of helping most of us, we were degraded and disrespected, even when the respect we gave was genuine. I witnessed horror stories, and while not all places are like this, there are plenty that are and the awareness is so sparse that these places will never be shut down, hurting children even more over their already excruciating pain. The second facility wasn’t horrifying, but the children had to wear see through paper scrubs with makeshift underwear that was extremely uncomfortable. These places seemed like a keepaway for these children, with things like “pet therapy” sprinkled in rather than actual therapy with a psychologist. With advocacy and increased awareness, people will gain understanding that children need environments to thrive in, not be torn down in. Places that encourage trust and growth, not a life of loneliness and frustration. Overall, I plan to advocate extremely hard for change within schools and society, making it easier for children to reach out when they need to, decreasing bullying, and pushing kids towards the light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how dark it may seem.