On second thought: Do NOT ask me to be an agony aunt columnist, unless you want a hypocrite giving you life advice--you can get that on most major podcast programs anyway.

Remember last week when I was giving tips on how to be successful in the workplace and one of them was–get this–a good night’s sleep???? Well, your beloved editor broke her own rule on Tuesday night watching the U.S. men’s national team (soccer) lose dos a cero to our southern neighbors on primetime television.

I’m not sure why I stayed up to watch that game, to be honest: our new manager, the Argentine globetrotter Mauricio Pochettino– he’s magic, you know–is a good coach but not a miracle worker. It’s only been his second game in charge so far, working with a squad depleted by injuries and club soccer fatigue. Nevertheless, I persisted–much like Tim Ream in that backline (I can’t believe he’s still playing! The man has been with the Stars and Stripes since I was first learning long division).

However, my faith in Poch and the boys has not faltered. The World Cup on home soil is fast approaching–much like pickup trucks on Hwy 144 trying to tailgate me on a Monday morning–and it’s now or never for the ex-Spurs coach to justify the sky-high stadium ticket pricing and broadcast deals and make our players “put a shift in” and “turn the game on its head” or any other clichés that Taylor Twellman likes to appropriate.

As you can imagine, studying journalism up in Athens meant that I had a lot of classmates who wanted to be sports reporters and presenters, namely with an interest in college football (go Dawgs!). Of course, not all of them ultimately chose that path, but the ones that did seem to be having fun, albeit with a shoestring salary. Over the summer, a friend of mine did an internship with the Associated Press taking photos at the Olympics in Paris and had a great time, combining work experience with shopping sprees and croissant-eating (our two favorite things to do together!)

So to cap things off for today, I will end my column on an unrelated note: poetry! To help get into the autumn mood, I’ve started putting the “Poe” in “poetry”, reading some works by possibly one of the greatest American poets of all time, in my not-so-humble opinion (I’m starting to sound like Alexi Lalas...)

Here is “A Dream within a Dream” which is one of my favorites from Poe.

A Dream with a Dream Edgar Allen Poe 

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now, Thus much let me avow — You are not wrong, who deem That my days have been a dream; Yet if hope has flown away In a night, or in a day, In a vision, or in none, Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar Of a surf-tormented shore, And I hold within my hand Grains of the golden sand — How few! yet how they creep Through my fingers to the deep, While I weep — while I weep!

O God! Can I not grasp Them with a tighter clasp?

O God! can I not save One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem But a dream within a dream?

Andrea Gutierrez is the managing editor of the Bryan County News. In soccer (or whatever you want to call it), Gutierrez supports Arsenal F.C., and her current favorite player is Gabriel Martinelli.