Everyone has a different way and time that they realize the path their story will take. Some know in an instant that this, whatever this is, is what they want to do with their entire lives. For others, it’s a long and gradual journey to realizing what they want to spend their life doing. For Tobin Buhk, it was always in the back of his mind throughout his high school career.

“I wanted to be a rockstar and a famous actor and those didn’t pan out,” Buhk said. “[I also wanted to be] an athlete as a major league baseball player, and those didn’t pan out for me. You know you have those childhood fantasies, those childhood dreams. But I do remember, as far back as high school that I wanted to be a teacher.”

His passion from them has developed a lot more since those years in high school, and even now, that love still lives on for Buhk.

“I loved high school,” Buhk said. “I had a really positive experience with the whole high school athlete thing, and some of the adults that played very formative roles in my life were teachers. I wanted to be like that. This is a very special environment, a very special time for kids, and if it’s done correctly, it can be a really unique [experience]. I want to be part of that. Spending time with kids is something I always think of as drinking from the fountain of youth. It keeps you young and vibrant. Also I’ve always enjoyed being with kids.”

Buhk was initially certified to teach his sole passion: literature. He pursued a career of teaching English because of his love for text and, more specifically, writing.

“I love writing, and I’ve always loved writing and literature,” Buhk said. “I wanted to do something that I could spend a lot of time around those things, so I got certified to teach English.”

Although Buhk initially started as an English teacher, he now teaches social studies at the middle school and high school levels for history.

“We had a teacher at the middle school who it was discovered on an audit was not certified to teach Social Studies,” Buhk said. “I was teaching English at the time, and since I’m qualified to teach social studies, we simply flipped. So I’ve been a full-time social studies teacher now for a good five or six years.”

Although he loves teaching history, Buhk’s true passion always has been and will be literature.

“I love history but I love writing too,” Buhk said. “I’ve been teaching history now for a long time, and I do miss the writing part a little bit.”

To keep with his love of literature, Buhk has put much of his time and effort into writing his books. He has been writing approximately one a year ever since the early 2000’s and is currently working on his tenth book.

“It’s kind of addicting,” Buhk said. “The research and mulling over some of these stones to see what’s underneath there. I can get really excited about finding a photograph, for example, or being able to identify someone in a picture.”

His first book took a look at the world of forensic science. He put an exuberant amount of effort into this book and making sure that it accurately depicted the forensics world.

“Too many people watch shows like CSI and they get this skewed view of what really takes place with forensic science and its lead to something called the CSI effect,” Buhk said. “We wanted to reveal the real-life world of forensic science and death. So I took the reader to a place where the reader can’t really go, and that’s to a morgue to see how a medical examiner goes about his business. In order to do this, I spent a year as a volunteer in the Kent County Morgue. I went from a wide-eyed observer to getting my gloves bloody and helping out.”