Kickin’ It, Bi-Vocational Style

Throughout April and early May last year, in the lead-up to Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference, writers flooded the Blue Ridge Writers Facebook page detailing all the activity and preparation they were doing before the event.

“I’ve been working on my notebook, compiling everything in it.”

“My one sheets are complete for every project that I am pitching.”

“I’ve just completed my latest proposal.”

Meanwhile, I was over here in the recliner like, “Today I answered 50 emails, graded a bunch of papers, drove across a mountain and back to teach some classes, and survived work today. Word.”

I guess you could call me a “Bi-Vocational Writer.” That sounds important, doesn’t it? It means I have a day job because I enjoy luxuries like electricity, food, and a roof over my head. I definitely feel called to write, but I also feel called to my job as a college professor—not to mention, it pays the bills.

Because I am teacher, I measure time in “school years,” August to May. This year has been one for the books—possibly the busiest one ever in my long career.

Circumstances have necessitated me to teach at three different course sites. I’ve been pushed and pulled in so many directions that I have felt like Stretch Armstrong at a ‘70s birthday party. I enjoy my job and have loved getting to know diverse students at these separate places, but I really need a nap.

In the midst of all the madness, I have been able to do some writing—devotionals for a project, monthly pieces for this blog, bi-monthly pieces for another blog, and other stuff for local publications. It’s been anything but easy, but in my weakness God has been strong.

I know this hectic, crazy-wacky year represents a season in my life, and it won’t always be this way. In the big picture, I see being bi-vocational as a blessing, as my day job and other things in my life give me PLENTY of writing material.

Carlton Hughes wears many hats. By day, he’s a professor of communication at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College. On Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings, he does object lessons and songs with motions as Children’s Pastor of Lynch Church of God. In his “spare time,” he is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including Chicken Soup for the Soul and several devotional books from Worthy Publishing—Let the Earth Rejoice, Just Breathe, So God Made a Dog, and the forthcoming Everyday Grace for Men. Carlton and his wife Kathy have two college-age sons, Noah and Ethan. He is on the planning committee for Kentucky Christian Writers Conference and is a year-round volunteer for Operation Christmas child.