If you could go back and tell your college self one thing, what would it be? About work, about life, about love, about career, about anything?

I’m speaking to a summer PR undergrad course, and though I’ve spoken to classes many times before, the professor for this class was so open with where she wanted me to go, I basically have free reign over all my beloved areas of expertise. So I’ve been thinking, what’s the most important thing I can tell these students? What would I want to tell my college self, about all these things I’ve learned since then. Everything? Anything? Nothing at all? Here are some ideas I’ve had so far:

About college.

Get experience. Get opportunities you can put on your resume under “work history,” whether you were paid to do them or not. If you can’t get someone to hire you to do cool things, volunteer at a non-profit, and make cool things up to do that are awesome experience in your field.

Broaden your horizons. Work in lots of different environments, industries, business models. Be an extreme job hopper. Travel to different countries or cities. Live somewhere else for a semester or two. Test your own ability to grow by ridding yourself of familiar places and people; force yourself to experience what it will be like to move away from home while you still have the option of returning back there. That way, when the decision to move across country for a killer job comes, you will know you can handle it, and you can make the decision more easily.

Build relationships. A great college experience is not all work and no play. I learned that the hard way, but I know it’s possible to do well in school and also be social and active and get experience. So, don’t get so busy you forget to build relationships. Most college students get their first job through a friend of a parent or a parent of a friend. So make sure you make lots of them, from lots of different places, with lots of different interests.

About the web.

Explore it. I started a blog my senior year, and it wasn’t award-winning by any means. But I learned a lot about the web, the shoulds and shouldn’ts of blogging and how it can impact your life. This experience helped me navigate into something bigger later on.

Get connected. I didn’t know then the amazing networking power of the web in the professional world. Now I know of student bloggers who get great job offers right out of school because of who they know – online.

Make real friends. Connect to as many people – in real ways – as you can. Making friends online, though, does not mean simply amassing thousands of Facebook or MySpace friends. Making real friends online takes a lot of time and work, so create a small working network of five to fifteen professionals, because these are the relationships hat will really help your career.

About work.

Get a job. Get and keep whatever job you can as soon as you graduate, even an internship. Don’t be picky, don’t hesitate, and don’t turn down offers because you think you deserve more money. Maybe you do, but someone else who’s being interviewed and is just as qualified as you doesn’t care about money, because they’re still living at home with their parents, and you have to compete with that. The longer you wait to get a job out of school, the worse you will feel and the longer you’ll have to keep waiting to get one. You can always get another job later.

Do amazing work every day. Settle for nothing less than being remarkable, even on the stupidest assignments. Find ways to make every project you work on better. If your boss doesn’t assign you amazing work, do the stupid work fast, and then come up with amazing assignments for yourself and get them all done in record time. If your boss isn’t impressed, start looking for another job somewhere else, because someone will appreciate the initiative.

Make your own ladder. There are some places where the career ladder is dead. There are others where it’s not. Who cares? Make your own career ladder based on your wildest dreams. Whether that means job hopping until you find something or someplace you love or whether it means having a braided career, a patchwork of working, traveling, starting your own business, freelancing, doing what you love. Before you have a family to provide for and a mortgage to pay, focus on finding your ladder, and climb it however you’d like.

About life.

Be a good friend. Stay in touch with your friends from college, the ones who are far and the ones who are near. But also, make new friends, and balance exploring new relationships with preserving old ones.

Love. Whether it’s someone or something, make sure you always have love in your life. It could be a hobby or a pet or a friend or a romantic relationship, as long as it gives you the love you need to be happy, motivated, and satisfied.

Make happiness your top priority. Money won’t make you happy, in fact, research shows that once you reach the $40,000 a year mark, your basic needs are met and more money simply won’t increase happiness (across socioeconomic and geographic locations). But love will, and friendships, and things you’re passionate about, so organize your time and your efforts to put a priority on these things first.

I’d love to hear your ideas as well, so tell me:

What would you tell your college self now? About the things that matter to you? About getting where you are now, or avoiding those places you wish you’d never gone?