Ailana’s Journal—2026-07-14 (Patreon)

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GOOD MORNING by Ailana Geven Keller

Jason let me sleep in. Until now. Call it an extra half hour.

“Time for the good-morning pictures,” he said. “What will it be today?”

I picked a blanket.

“You know you wore pink for last night’s goodnight post, right?” he asked.

“Pink,” I said as if I meant it, “is not a color. It’s a mood.”

And that is how we started the day.

I should add that, with Emily living in the same unit as us, there aren’t as many places for us to hide each other’s clothes. We laughed about that this morning while he may or may not have been trying to decide whether to keep looking or go commando.

With the options limited, he finally guessed right—my suitcase, which isn’t quite in the closet yet.

So as the fun winds down for the morning, it’s time for me to get going. I am going to work most of today. Seriously.

I’ll check in later to prove it.

In the meantime, I hope you have a great Tuesday morning. See you soon!

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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.

WORK, WORK, WORK by Ailana Geven Keller

So far, I have sorted notes and drafted four outlines. I’ve created an idea list. And I’ve written about 500 words for one article.

It’s a detailed conservation article about the effects of walking on fragile ecosystems. In some places, the simple act of stepping on the ground compacts the soil and disrupts habitat for organisms living within it.

I find that sort of thing very interesting. My editor says articles like that don’t have much competition, so he can usually place them fairly quickly—once I get them done.

Jason, Geoni, Kel, and Emily took the Highlander north for a stock-photo hunt. They’re looking for native plants and beach landscapes. Kel and Emily claim to be in charge of snacks.

They gathered in Geoni’s kitchen and packed a cooler.

The plan is to be back by mid-afternoon, but from what I could tell from the cooler, they’re prepared for the car to break down and strand them for a couple of days!

Tomorrow, Naomi has some work for us in the studio. The package was waiting for us when Sasha got here. It looks like your basic box of clothes. The shot list isn’t very specific.

Jasmine has Vanessa and Min booked for a couple of hours. They want to bring their friend Isabela, too. Jasmine said she’d have all of Isabela’s forms ready for her to sign.

Jasmine and Sasha consulted on the budget for the day, and if the rest of us just treat it as part of our AGI routine, AGI can pay all three of them a half-day base rate. AGI will come out ahead if the rest of us don’t take base pay.

So, that’s the plan. It should be pretty routine for us at this point. Naomi plans to send us work more regularly going forward. I’ll share when it seems interesting.

I need to grab some lunch, text Jason to make sure everyone is okay, and get back to work.. See you later!

SOUNDS WORSE THAN IT IS by Evelyn Chandler

I’ve been cycling through five Tessera Bridge Systems projects, resetting some of Alderwick Private Management’s server connections, and reviewing the latest log files from the failing systems Nick brought me to South Padre Island to save.

I had a microwave potpie for lunch. Then, just a little while ago, Allen Geven from First Call came by to look at Nick’s garbage disposer.

We exchanged greetings as I let him into the kitchen.

“What’s the problem?” he asked.

I flipped the switch. “Sounds like the card in the bicycle spokes when we were kids, but angrier.”

To me, it sounded like metal on metal.

“Yeah, that’s not supposed to sound like that. Something’s probably stuck in the grinding chamber, and one of the impellers is hitting it as the plate spins.”

I faked a knowing look. “I was thinking the same thing. Probably need to get the filibuster spanner and tweak the fandango, if you ask me.”

Allen laughed. “It might not be that bad. I’ll get started.”

I got a text from Nick, so I retreated five steps to the living room. Allen opened the cabinets and all I could see was him sitting cross-legged and reaching in.

He had the whole disposer out and resting on a pad on the counter before I could congratulate Nick on the outcome of his New York meetings. By the time I got back to the kitchen, he was shining his light inside.

“How’s the patient, doc?”

Allen looked back and smiled. “I think it’ll be fine.”

A few seconds later, he pulled out a small screw with a long pair of needle-nose pliers.

“That’s it?” I said.

He had it back together in a few minutes. Then he cleaned everything up. Of course, I hovered like I had some purpose for being there.

The rest of this chapter is exclusive to Patreon.

Then he got a call. “It’s my mother…88 years old.”

The call was her fussing at him for working late and her telling him she had fed herself and was going to bed. He rolled his eyes and hung up.

“She’s like that,” he said. “It’s always about her.”

I tried to make the moment less awkward. “So, you’re off the hook for making her dinner?”

He nodded. “I try to make sure she eats, you know… Not just living on potpies.”

I laughed so loud, I had to explain myself.

“I was so busy today that that’s all I had time to eat. How funny is that?”

He smiled. “I mean, there’s nothing actually wrong with them. I just don’t want her having them all the time.”

“That makes sense.”

He put away his phone and picked up his tools. “Okay… Kaylee will send the invoice like last time.”

“That’s fine.”

He nodded, wiped the counter one more time, and said, “Well, you must be hungry, so I’ll get out of here and let you head home for dinner.”

“I honestly haven’t thought that far. What about you? What's your plan?”

Allen shrugged and looked away as if he were trying to decide. “I’ll probably just hit Subway…”

“How about I tag along?”

He gave me a puzzled look. “You want to go to Subway?”

I shrugged. “Either that or I DoorDash something.”

We’d made it to the hallway by that point, so I locked up Nick’s condo. He seemed very surprised, so I tried to make it more normal.

“I can follow you in my car, so you don’t have to bring me back.”

That seemed to put him at ease. “Okay, that’s great. Sorry I look like a janitor. I guess no one will care.”

“I know I don’t,” I said. “Let me get my keys.”

I’ll jump ahead.

We got there, went in together, ordered separately, then sat together.

He told me about his mother. She sounds difficult, so I think that says a lot about Allen’s character and dedication.

I told him about my company and a few details about the day. He seemed genuinely interested and appeared to understand the gist of what I had done.

We didn’t linger after the food was done. We got up and walked to the cars.

I repeated my request to call him if I needed advice about places to go or where to find things. This time, he said he’d be happy to help.

“Now that Ailana and everyone are back in town, I’m sure I can help you.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I suppose I’ll see you again at church next week?”

He nodded. “I’ll be there. That will be nice.”

So I went home and thought to myself about the theoretical butterfly effect.

I moved to South Padre Island as a result of an important client’s request.

My leaky faucet introduced me to First Call Property Services, which introduced me to Allen Geven, who introduced me to Kaylee Branch.

I chose a church because of its location relative to the condo, and that choice brought me into contact with Allen, Kaylee, their families, and their friends.

Nick’s lost screw became lodged in the garbage disposer, which led to a second appointment with First Call and a second visit from Allen. And that led to Allen saying I could call if I needed anything.

So, call it the butterfly effect. One thing leads to another, and soon a whole cascade follows.

Or maybe this is what living in a small town is like.

Either way, I think I’m happy here in a way I never expected. I’m going to get out of the condo more. The beach awaits! The bay is teeming with life waiting to be photographed. There are boats to sail, boards to paddle, and an island full of places I’ve never visited.

I’m going to savor all of this. Life is about to get good.

GOOD NIGHT by Ailana Geven Keller

Jason and I came over to the studio after dinner. We’re just double-checking that everything is set up and working. We want to be ready for tomorrow.

As photo sessions become more routine, they’ll dominate less of the day’s content. Studio work is going to become more and more common.

I don’t think you need an entire play-by-play of who stood where and who held what. So I’ll cover the shoot in a single chapter and share what seems most interesting.

Tomorrow, I’ll do more directing and coaching than modeling. My journey has brought me to a new place, and I’m okay with that. I have a longer thought about what that means, which I’ll share as a Patreon Afterthought.

Today felt like a good Tuesday. I got a lot of work done, and now I feel ready for tomorrow.

I think there’s a nice blessing in that idea.

May you end each day knowing you accomplished what mattered and feeling ready for whatever tomorrow brings.

Good night.

Be your best you!

AFTERTHOUGHTS by Ailana Geven Keller

I’ve been thinking about life as a journey—not in the usual sense of moving from one destination to another. I mean that every decision takes you to a new place, and where you can go next depends partly on where that decision left you.

You make one choice, and suddenly options exist that were not available before. Other options become more distant. Some disappear entirely.

That does not necessarily mean the choice was good or bad. It means choices have consequences, even when those consequences are not obvious at the time.

Imagine standing at an intersection with several roads ahead of you. You choose one and walk for a while. Eventually, you reach another intersection with a completely different collection of roads. Had you chosen differently at the first intersection, you would be standing somewhere else, and the roads in front of you would not be the same.

That is life.

Every choice I made helped bring me here. I wanted to write, but for a long time, wanting to write and being able to support myself as a writer were two very different things.

Modeling gave me the means to close that gap. It paid bills, gave me experiences, introduced me to people, and took me to places I might never have seen otherwise. Eventually, it gave me enough financial stability and freedom to make writing more than something I hoped to do.

I could make it my career.

That was not the original reason I modeled, but it became one of the most important results. And modeling did not lead only to writing.

It also brought me to my current role with AGI. I am still a model, but I am increasingly the person helping decide what the work should look like. I help develop the creative direction. I work with newer models. I help people learn how to pose, move, understand the camera, and communicate whatever the image needs to say.

Apparently, I became a creative director and model coach while I was busy doing other things.

That choice opens new doors. It might lead to more production work, more formal training of other models, or larger projects where I spend more time behind the camera than in front of it.

But choosing that role also means I am choosing not to spend that same time somewhere else. There are only so many hours, and every yes contains at least one no.

That is the difficult part of thinking about life this way. We sometimes imagine that we are choosing one opportunity while leaving every other opportunity safely waiting for us.

Usually, they do not wait.

Back in high school, I could have pursued biology more seriously. I was interested in the natural world. I liked learning how ecosystems worked and how small changes could affect everything living within them.

Maybe I could have become a conservation scientist. Instead of writing an article about how people walking through a fragile environment can compact soil and disturb organisms, I might have been one of the scientists studying that effect.

That life is not impossible for me even now. I could decide tomorrow that I wanted to pursue it.

But I would not be starting from the same place where I stood in high school. I would have to go back and complete courses I never took. I might need a different undergraduate foundation, graduate work, field experience, and years of training. I would be entering a demanding profession later than many people around me.

None of that means I could not do it. It means the route from where I am now would be long.

The choices between then and now have carried me away from that particular road. They carried me toward writing, photography, modeling, creative direction, AGI, Jason, South Padre Island, and the life I have now.

To become a conservation scientist, I would not simply turn left at the next corner. I would have to travel backward for a while, find an older intersection, and begin taking roads I once passed.

Sometimes that is worth doing.

People change careers. They return to school. They leave lives that no longer fit and build entirely different ones. Difficult does not mean impossible, and the fact that a path is long does not mean you should never take it.

But we should be honest about the journey.

A major change is not always one brave decision followed by immediate transformation. Sometimes it is one brave decision followed by five years of classes, uncertainty, sacrifice, and beginning again.

That can still be the right choice. It just is not a magical one.

I do not regret the roads I took. Writing about conservation lets me use both sides of myself. I can learn about science, talk to people doing the work, and help explain why it matters. Photography lets me show parts of the world that people might otherwise overlook. Modeling helped make those things possible. AGI has given me another way to create and help other people grow.

The life I have is not the only life I could have lived. It is the life my choices created, and tomorrow’s choices will create the place where I stand next.

Maybe that is the most useful way to think about decisions.

Do not ask only, “What will this give me?” Ask, “Where will this take me?”

What new options might exist once you arrive? Which older options might become harder to reach? And is that destination somewhere you are willing to stand?

We cannot keep every road open forever. But we can pay attention to where we are going.

And when the place we reach no longer feels right, we can choose again—even if the next journey is difficult.

Be your best you.

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