Bob Dugoni's 7th Grade Moment Made Him

When his class and teacher failed to react to his story, he knew he had failed.

We all have some special moments in our lives where we realize something about ourselves we had not known and might not have realized for years had it not happened when it did.

That’s true for New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni. It hit him in seventh grade. He was assigned a class speech on slavery and choose the point of view of an abolitionist. He spoke before his classmates about how demoralizing and abhorrent slavery was. When he finished, no one clapped. They all just stared at him, and so did his teacher, Sister Kathleen. 

Dugoni was anxious. Was his story really that bad? Standing alone before them, he felt embarrassed.

Then Sister Kathleen pulled him from the classroom with no explanation. Now he was really in trouble. She told him to stand right there, outside his classroom in the hallway. Alone. She entered the classroom next door as he stood wondering what had gone wrong. Finally, she returned. 

She told young Bobby she wanted him to give his speech to the other seventh grade class.

“I loved the moment,” Dugoni recalls. “I realized I could move people with words. That is the moment I decided I wanted to be a writer.”

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Former investigative reporter Rick Pullen is the author of the best selling thriller Naked Ambition, its sequel Naked Truth, and a stand-alone thriller The Apprentice. He’s also a magazine columnist and feature writer.

Thanks for reading Idol Talk! Subscribe for free or support my work with a paid subscription. — Rick Pullen