Today we’d like to introduce you to Arch Grieve
Hi Arch, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
As someone who struggles with bipolar 1 disorder, my life has been punctuated by some pretty high highs and some brutally low lows. I taught high school social studies for many years and earned a master’s in international and comparative politics before I started to teach at two Ohio colleges. I do that, along with being a driving instructor and doing a number of other (smaller) part-time jobs and gigs. But I’ve also been everything from a bouncer to an internationally-certified transformative mediator (which I still am!) and done a whole lot of other things in between as well. Job-hopping is a byproduct of my bipolar disorder, but I think I’ve finally found a mix that works well for me.
By far, however, my favorite job is being a travel guide. I love taking people to Bosnia-Herzegovina, a love that started in 2016 when I first visited that country while I was treasurer of the Dayton Sister City Committee. I then went on to serve as that organization’s vice chair, chair, and chair of its Sarajevo subcommittee. When I got home from my first trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina, all I could think about was how to get back to the country and help others experience it, so I started several exchange programs to do just that.
Since that first trip in 2016, I’ve taken 47 high school students, college students, and adult friends and family to and from Bosnia-Herzegovina over the past seven years. Some of the early trips were ones I organized and fundraised for to take my college and high school students on. Later on, I wrote a $120,000 US State Department grant to bring over 18 students and three teachers to Dayton, OH, the site of the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords (which ended the Bosnian War in the 90s). While I’m no longer involved in that program, it has continued for at least four iterations after I wrote the initial grant, and I couldn’t be prouder of its legacy.
A couple years ago, I went through a lot of personal changes in my own life, however, and one of those was trying to move to Bosnia-Herzegovina. As it goes, however, I met a girl (my beautiful fianceé, Jay) and fell in love and decided to stay here. However, I did decide that I wanted to continue traveling to this amazing country and helping people experience it for the first time, so I started a business to begin organizing those trips in the summer of 2023. I also use my business, Gem City Dudeist Priest, LLC, to pursue some of my other creative outlets, ranging from pottery to teaching drums to performing live music, and even to book publishing. I published my first book this year, “One Dude’s Guide to Being Bipolar: How to Stay the Hell Out of Grippy Socks Jail, Achieve Anyways, and Abide Always,” and I am working on several others, including one on divorce mediation and another on Palestine.
As someone living with bipolar, managing stress and sleep are probably the two most important things in life, and so I’ve managed to co-create a life with my future wife that allows me the flexibility I need to help manage my bipolar symptoms while also bringing in enough money to make ends meet, all while having the time to pursue my passion projects, like writing, creating music, creating pottery, and just creating new things. A lot of what I do I put up on my YouTube channel, where people can learn everything from how to make maple syrup to how to make a White Russian.
Tying it all together is my Dudeist faith, a religion based on the cult classic Coen Brothers film, The Big Lebowski. So my alter ego, Gem City Dudeist Priest, is just a restatement of where I live and the fact that I am a Dudeist from Dayton. Practically speaking, it means a lot of weed and White Russians, but spiritually I’ve found it to be a good fit as well… for me, anyway.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s not always been a smooth road, no. As I mentioned, living with bipolar can be pretty rough sometimes, and I have two psych ward stays to prove it. Learning how to manage my symptoms and stay out of the dreaded “grippy socks jail” is not easy, which is why I wrote a book to try and help others (and their friends and family members) who struggle with managing their bipolar symptoms. I’m at a place now, however, where I feel confident in my ability to manage those symptoms well, enough so that I wrote a book to try and help others do the same. I’m also collaborating with another TikTok creator who has bipolar 1 disorder on a new podcast, which will be called “Bipolar Rotations Buds,” a weed-friendly podcast about all things bipolar. It’s been proven that there is a strong link between bipolar disorder and creativity, and indeed many famous artists are also bipolar, so my hope is to help others like me who struggle with the illness to learn how to manage it while also helping them (more purposefully and effectively) tap into that creative side. If I can help just one person avoid a hospitalization, then writing the book will absolutely have been worth it.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I specialize in a lot of things, although from a professional standpoint I am well-versed in teaching others about project-based learning (within the education field) and transformative mediation (in the mediation realm). In terms of credentials, I’m an internationally certified transformative mediator through the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and a licensed teacher in the state of Ohio.
Unofficially, I’m a bit of a jack-of-all-trades kind of person, and I love learning new skills. I’m a homebrewer, a home (weed) grower, and I love to make my own maple syrup. I’m also a woodworker and love making furniture, and my next door neighbor (a luthier) and I are currently in the process of turning my garage into a shared workshop, where I hope to start building guitars soon. I also own a kiln and love to make pottery.
I’m probably best known, however, for being an author, and I recently self-published “One Dude’s Guide to Being Bipolar.” My goal is to turn this book into a series of books on a variety of topics. My current project is working on trying to get together people in the food truck industry to create a book on how to start a food truck, for example. I enjoy working with other authors who are looking to self-publish, as well, and help guide them through the steps of writing and publishing their own books.
I also am a songwriter and love busking whenever I can. My varied interests are probably on display the best on my TikTok channel, Gem City Dudeist Priest. I also have two podcasts – Killing Time With Arch and Discover Dayton. I’ve even helped in the production of a documentary called “Looking for Dayton,” which premiered at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
I think the diversity of skills that I have is what sets me apart most. I don’t necessarily have a “specialty,” I’m just a curious person who loves how to make new things I’ve never done before. Whether it’s building a boat (which I’ve done) or learning how to build a cigar box guitar (which I hope to do soon), I just like to learn how things work, and that’s something that’s never really changed about me.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Aside from my own book, which I wrote (in part) to help remind me what I should do when I’m manic or depressed, my favorite book of all time is “God Bless You Mr. Rosewater,” by fellow (former) bipolar sufferer, Kurt Vonnegut. It’s a book that I think demonstrates brilliantly the generosity, creativity, struggles, and eccentricity of people who suffer from bipolar disorder.
“The Big Lebowski” is the movie that my faith is based on, and I love rewatching that movie whenever I can. It reminds me that nothing is that serious and things will turn out OK, we just have to abide.
Pricing:
- Book – 9.99
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gemcitydudeistpriest.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gemcitydudeistpriest/
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gemcitydudeistpriest
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gemcitydudeistpriest
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMBrqPP-KZo0y751ndiRZeA
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/gem-city-dudeist-priest
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1i7jPkUjHV9INdZoXE0l21?si=00693bb7c39c48db&nd=1&dlsi=d59ebd3b878d4916
