Michigan author Ian Bush has been writing and telling stories for over a decade now, but he’s also worn many hats throughout the years that’s led him to explore different career paths.
Bush returned to the Suttons Bay area to stay with family last year following his transition from military life to a civilian lifestyle. For about 10 years, Bush served in the U.S. Air Force, however, he’s also held jobs as a roofer, meat cutter, firefighter, and National Park Service ranger.
Bush grew up in the Traverse City area before relocating to Battle Creek at a very young age, so the region has always been a “super magical” place to him. He would come up to Traverse City and the surrounding areas to visit over the years until he eventually moved back.
“Traverse City was that summer getaway and relaxation,” Bush said. “The water here, the cherry festival, everything about it was really magical to me.”
Today, Bush is a substitute teacher for Northwest Education Services, where he’s been primarily working at Leland Public School for the last four to five months. He’s also been able to continue writing, covering local topics recently as a contributing writer for the Leelanau Enterprise.
Bush said he encountered his own difficulties with learning when he was in school, explaining that he discovered he had a speech impediment in fifth grade. The teachers that were dedicated and patient with Bush during his school years helped motivate him to succeed, and is part of the reason why he enjoys the job and wants to be a teacher.
“I received my Michigan Tests for Teacher Certification before I graduated high school, so I was already a certified basic teacher then,” he said. “I started at 18 as a certified basic teacher and a published author before I even left high school.”
One of the first writing pieces Bush had published was from a local writing competition. Bush said one of his high school theater teachers at the time, many of whom left a positive impact on his life, read his work and submitted it to a local writing contest that he ended up winning.
“I wanted other people to, whatever they were doing, be able to pick up my book and make it feel like an old friend — like just a friend telling a story,” he said.
Bush said the irony of his writing career is that he’s always loved fiction, especially the supernatural and paranormal genre. Despite this, he was asked to write a college tips guide for a college honor society he was in that was later published internationally. The guide was Bush’s first nonfiction work published, and he has since gone on to explore other forms of media and communication like participating in various international podcasts.
“I love interviewing people and talking and just connecting really,” he said. “Like talking about the big things that scare people… For podcasts, the topics I usually speak about are self-improvement, the creative writing process. And I’ve spoken about some even heavier topics, I’m a survivor of suicide, so I will kind of get raw and vulnerable in the right spaces with the right people.”
The most thrilling of jobs Bush said he’s worked in his career was during his time at the Pentagon in Virginia, however, he said his most rewarding occupation was firefighting because he was able to help people.
“I think that’s my big thing is that I just try to make an impact everywhere I go no matter where I’m at, I think the military taught me that,” he said. “Try to just leave a little bit of positive change everywhere you go.”
And as important as writing and jobs have been to his growth in the last decade, Bush said his biggest focus right now is being a good role model and father to his daughter, Winifred, who is nine-years-old. He said he wasn’t able to see Winifred as much when she was younger, so coming back home, he purposely took a back seat career-wise in order to have more time and energy for her.
“I want to devote as much energy and time and freedom to my daughter to make up for the time that I didn’t have,” he said.
