Dr. Michelle Pledger:
Now I’m hanging, I’m holding onto the strap, but I’m underneath. It was terrifying.

Alec Patton:
This is High Tech High Unboxed. I’m Alec Patton, and that was the voice of Dr. Michelle Sadrena Pledger, Director of Liberation at the High Tech High Graduate School of Education. She’s also an author. She basically MCs the Deeper Learning Conference, and last summer she helped run the San Marcos Writing Project, Teen Writer’s Camp. Michelle invited me to give a workshop on podcasting at the camp in August. As part of the workshop, I interviewed her. The interview was meant to be about Michelle’s lifelong love of dance, but it took a turn. When Michelle told me the story you’re about to hear, I knew we had to share it with the world. Here’s how that story begins.
If we were to say like, Hey, you know what, rest of the day you’re going dancing, where would you go?

Dr. Michelle Pledger:
I would go salsa dancing.

Alec Patton:
Yeah.

Dr. Michelle Pledger:
For sure. I have trophies in country line dancing, but salsa, anything Latin is my jam. So salsa, bachata, chacha, cumbia, all of those are my jam.

Alec Patton:
Okay, go back. You have trophies in country line dancing?

Dr. Michelle Pledger:
Yes.

Alec Patton:
Let’s get into that a little bit.

Dr. Michelle Pledger:
It started at a roller skating rink. So in the nineties, roller skating was big. I don’t know if it’s big now. I don’t know if people roller skate now, but I roller-skated probably like four nights a week. And the roller skating rink where I skated at, they started playing country music because they were going out of business and the owner loved country, and he was like, I’m going out of business. I’m losing this rink anyway. I’m going to play the music that I want to hear. So he lost a lot of his clientele, but there were some of us who love skating and we were just like, okay, now we’re skating to country music. But then eventually you’re hearing the music over and over and you start to like country. And so then we found out that there was a teen night at the local country line dance place called the Branding Iron in San Bernardino.
And so on Monday nights, anyone 16 or over could go country line dance, and on Sundays it was Family Day, so any age could go. And so on family days, they would have competitions, line dance competitions. And so I entered the competitions. I won every single week. A lot of the girls did not like me because I kept winning. They had very mean things to say, and I was just like, well learn how to dance better. Then that went into bull riding because they had a mechanical bull at the country line dancing place, and I started riding the mechanical bull and I got really, really good at it. And there was a scout that came and saw me on the mechanical bull, and he said, do you want to ride live bulls? And then that is a whole other podcast on bull riding.

Alec Patton:
Okay, we’re going to get into that a little bit. What?

Dr. Michelle Pledger:
Yes, that happened. What’s the question?

Alec Patton:
You’ve ridden actual live bulls?

Dr. Michelle Pledger:
Yes.

Alec Patton:
Wow. Okay. So you’re riding a mechanical bull and somebody says, Hey, you should try this with a real bull. First of all, I didn’t realize the mechanical bulls were such a good indicator. And that moment happens and you don’t say, no, that’s insane, I’m not going to ride a real bull, that sounds like I will die. That’s where I’d be. So we’re already in a different place here. And so did you just drive out to the ranch and jump on a bull?

Dr. Michelle Pledger:
Yeah. So this scout was really kind and basically because I don’t know how much you know about the mechanical bull, and so I could ride at 0.65, the fastest is 0.66, and that has to do with the buck and the spin. So being able to ride at 0.65 is a huge deal, which means I was out-riding some of the males who would get on the mechanical bull. And so this scout saw something in me. He said, I’ll pay for your training on livestock, and then you’ll be entered into this women’s bull riding competition. So I go to Norco, which is where there are a lot of ranches, and I start training on livestock and it’s fine. It goes really well. And then competition day happens and things went left.

Alec Patton:
Continue.

Dr. Michelle Pledger:
So you don’t get to pick which steer or bull that you ride. You draw your bull. And I drew a bull named Exorcist. So for any of you who are familiar with Exorcist, what is that bull probably going to do?

Alec Patton:
Okay, this is just a quick note to say that Michelle was speaking to an audience of middle schoolers here.

Dr. Michelle Pledger:
Spin.

Alec Patton:
Spin.

Dr. Michelle Pledger:
Right? And so what happens is once the bull comes into the chute, you get seated and they usually-

Alec Patton:
Do you have to have one hand up?

Dr. Michelle Pledger:
It’s for balance. Yeah. They usually give you a moment to get really tucked in before you say, okay, open the gate. But every time I would sit on Exorcist, it would get on its haunches. It would like, sit down. So then they started shocking. And this was new to me. I had never experienced this, so they’re shocking the bull to make it get up. And I’m like, okay, now you’re just making this bull angrier than before. And so that kept happening. I would get on, sit, they would shock, stand up, and then they just told me, look, we’ve got to get this rodeo going so as soon as you sit, we’re opening the shoot, you’re not going to have time to settle. You just got to go. And oh my gosh, they did that. I sat, they opened the chute, the bull did a hard spin to the left. I flew off the right, but I didn’t let go because I was scared.
So now I’m hanging, I’m holding onto the strap, but I’m underneath. It was terrifying. All these rodeo clowns, if you’ve ever seen it, they’re coming because they are trying to, they think I’m hung up. So they’re trying to come to untie me. But really it’s just me gripping because I’m so scared. And so these rodeo clowns to try to get me untied, distract the bull. By that time I’m covered in manure. I have manure in my mouth, in my ears. It is everywhere because I’ve been drugged by this creature. It was terrifying. And I had on… Jenny Carter, who was fifth in the world in bull riding at that time, she let me wear her chaps, her spurs, her vests. She just saw something in me, I don’t know why. And then I just basically ruined everything that she gave me. And so I thought I was out of it.
I thought, because you have to stay on eight seconds. So I was like, okay, this is it. But then there ended up being a tie for sixth place. And so they were like, you have to ride again, and if you win, you’ll get the trophy for sixth place. And I was so scared, but I really didn’t want that to be the way I went out. I was like the only black person at this whole place. It was like all white people. I was like, this cannot be how I go down. So I drew a different bull, thank goodness, and I stayed on for eight seconds. I beat the other person. So I got the sixth place trophy. And then they had Jenny Carter, the one who was fifth in the world, she drew Exorcist. So she was there to do an exhibition ride. She drew Exorcist. And guess what happened to her? She fell off of Exorcist. So technically, if someone who’s fifth in the world couldn’t ride that bull, technically I’m like sixth in the world because she couldn’t do it either.

Alec Patton:
That’s how I do that math.

Dr. Michelle Pledger:
Yeah. So that was it. And then I retired after that. I was like, this is not my ministry. This is not my story. I’m not meant to be a bull rider.

Alec Patton:
Wow. All right. We are going to call it right there. Thank you so much, Michelle.

Dr. Michelle Pledger:
Thank you.

Alec Patton:
High Tech High Unboxed is hosted and edited by me, Alec Patton. Our theme music is by Brother Herschel. Huge thanks to Michelle Sadrena Pledger for sharing this story. In the show notes, we’ve got a link to Michelle’s book, LIBERATE! Pocket-Sized Paradigms for Liberatory Learning, and a link to the San Marcos Writing Project Teen Writers’ Camp. Thanks for listening.