River City Connections—2026-07-06 (Patreon)

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ORIENTATION by Emma Knox Vale

ORIENTATION by Emma Knox Vale—Good morning, everybody. It’s Monday morning, and I am at Southwest Tennessee Community College doing onboarding and orientation. I only have a few minutes, but I wanted to check in because this feels like one of those days I might want to remember later.

So far, it is going good.

I have filled out forms, signed things, read things I probably need to read again, and tried not to look like I am brand new to being a grown adult. Which I am not brand new, technically, but sometimes I still feel like somebody is going to ask who let me in the room.

I already met my supervisor, too. She was kind, and that helped. I am going to be working in the Counseling Services office in the Farris Building. I do not know everything I will be doing yet, but it sounds like office work, helping with appointments, keeping things organized, and learning how the department runs.

That part actually makes me happy.

I keep thinking about how I want to study social work, and now I get to work in a place where students come when they need somebody to help them figure out life. I know I am not the counselor. I know I am just starting. But it still feels like I am standing near the kind of work I want to do one day.

While I’m here…

The bedroom set Carter and Noah went to look at yesterday did not work out. Noah said it looked better in the pictures than it did in person, and Carter agreed. So me and Noah are back to thinking maybe we will order something off Amazon and just put it together ourselves.

That might be the best plan anyway. At least then we know what we are getting, and nobody has to drive across three counties to discover a dresser drawer doesn’t close.

I will talk about that another time because I need to get back to the paperwork. After this, I have some more orientation things to cover, and I am trying very hard to make a good first impression.

But I am here.

I have a job.

I have a folder full of forms, a pen in my hand, and a reason to feel hopeful on a Monday morning.

See y’all later. Thanks for reading my story!

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All characters in this story are fictional characters, their images generated with AI for AGI Stories. They do not represent any real person, nor is their appearance based on any real human.

SUMMER CHANGES by Cindi Curtis Allen

It’s Monday morning, and I am taking a break in the kitchen. I am only on my second cup of coffee, but who’s counting?

Life has changed a lot since summer got here. Not in one giant dramatic way. More like one connection at a time.

Meeting Emma and Noah added another little circle to our life, and somehow that has meant more lunches, more texts, more reasons to make plans, and more people showing up at the house. A few months ago, that would have sounded terrifying.

Honestly, sometimes it still does.

But here is the surprising part. Everybody just lets me have my anxiety episodes like I am sneezing because of pollen.

“Can I get you a water?”

“Need anything?”

“Want to sit down?”

Then, once it passes, everybody just goes on like nothing happened.

Nobody makes it weird. Nobody gives me that look. Nobody acts like I ruined the room.

Before I moved to Memphis and let Michael all the way inside my GAD, I assumed everyone would judge me. I thought if people saw the anxious parts clearly, they would decide I was too much trouble.

That fear paralyzed me. It kept me from enjoying things I actually wanted. It kept me lonely while I was standing right beside people.

So now I am wondering what other fears are doing that.

What else have I decided is too dangerous before I even tried it? What doors have I not opened because anxiety told me there was a monster behind them?

Maybe you have one too.

A fear that talks louder than truth.

Today’s verse is Isaiah 41:10 NIV: “So do not fear, for I am with you.”

That does not mean fear never comes. Mine still comes. Sometimes it comes while I am holding coffee in my own kitchen.

But God does not ask me to be fearless before He stays with me. He stays with me inside the fear. He gives me Michael. He gives me friends who offer water. He gives me ordinary moments that prove anxiety is not the whole story.

So maybe today, we do not have to defeat every fear.

Maybe we just have to notice one, tell the truth about it, and let God stand there with us.

That is enough for Monday morning.

See you soon.

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