I'm Baaaack

Is there anyone still there?  I can’t believe that I haven’t written anything since September!!  So much has happened in the last 4ish months.  I started Court Reporting school, still working at Best Buy, successfully surprised my dad with a visit from my brother, made a visit down to Providence, my Aunt Kristina and adorable cousins visited from South Carolina, and celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Don’t worry, I don’t plan to go into detail about each of these events...I will further explain a few things though.

First off, I know most of you probably know what a court reporter (CR) does, but your knowledge doesn’t go much further than, they write down everything in court.  Yes, you are correct, they do write everything that is said in court, but it goes on much further than that.  Most people think that a CR types on a regular qwerty keyboard.  It would be pretty impossible to produce a verbatim transcript by using a qwerty.  A CR uses a Steno machine made especially for shorthand writers.  An example of a Steno writer looks like this…

I know it looks rather confusing, and it was at first, but not anymore!  The average speed that a person talks is 180 words per minute, I have to be able to write at over 200 words to graduate.  We learn to type in combinations…this is what allows us to type so quickly.  Most of the time I am hitting multiple keys to create words and phrases.  Learning shorthand is like learning a different language.  Along with learning shorthand and trying to build up my speed, I also have other requirement classes I have to take.  I am currently in legal terminology.  I was really worried that I would hate this class.  Come to find out, I really like it.  My teacher is awesome and really down to earth.  Learning about the ins and outs of the legal system is so interesting.  Love the class, but I am still really worried about my midterm next week.

Well, that’s all for now…I promise I won’t wait four months before I write again.