1. Don’t buy all the stuff the man tells you to get for school.

2. Don’t pay for texting on your cell phone.

3. Don’t be a jerk to your friends just so you can fit in with the popular crowd.

4. Change your mom’s ringtone, just to keep her on her toes.

5. Rebel against Facebook or MySpace.

6. Play an instrument.

7. Send your school a complaint.

8. Don’t use the Internet; it’s only a way of being rejected from the world.

9. Kill an ant just to watch it die.

10. Ask someone a rhetorical question.

— Kelly Biswell is a student at Santa Barbara Charter School.