The Life of A Court Reporter. . .

I love my job.  Or shall I say, I love my job...most of the time.  There are many things to love about my job.  My job is challenging, and therefore, exciting.  Every job I go on, the circumstances are different; the attorneys are different; the witnesses and their experiences are different; the cases and their contents are different; the location is different.  You have the slow talkers, the speedy talkers, the heavy-accented talkers, the I-don't-know-what-the-heck-you-just-said talkers, the talk-on-top-of-each-other talkers.  Love those!  The challenge starts the second we are on the record!  It is my job to process and write instantaneously every syllable that is said verbatim the entire time we are on the record.  Challenging!  But I crave the challenge!!  I love when an attorney really gets going and is trucking at who knows how many words a minute and I am right there with him!!!  My blood gets to pumping and my fingers get to moving as fast as they can possibly move!!!  It's exciting...and challenging!  I love that aspect of my job!

And then...there's the other part of my job I don't love so much...editing.  Editing, editing, editing.  I dread it.  I loathe it.  I abhor it.  I just plain hate, hate, hate it!  So I've gone to the job.  I've enjoyed the challenge.  And now it's time to edit it.  Sit in front of my laptop with headphones on listening to every spoken word that was said on the record ...play...stop...rewind...play...stop...rewind...rewind...rewind...play...stop...rewind making sure that every single word that was spoken is in my transcript.  Mind-numbing task!  Especially if you have a witness who is so anxious to answer the question he or she jumps on top of the attorney's question every single time!!!

Q  What is your date of --
A  January 1 --
Q  -- birth?
A  -- 1982.
Q  Where do you --
A  123 --
Q  -- live?
A  -- ABC Lane, Fort Worth, Texas.
Q  What do you --
A  I'm a nurse.
Q  -- do for a living?

(HELLO!!!!  I don't have magic fingers!!!!  Stop talking at the same time!!!!!!)

play...stop...rewind...play...stop...rewind...play...stop...rewind... one million times!!!!!!!!!  Hours upon hours of editing depending on the length of the job.  It normally takes me twice as long to edit the job as it did taking the job.

Once the awful task of editing is done, I'm back to loving my job!  Time to make my transcript perfect...by proofreading it!  I am a detail-oriented person, which drives me when proofreading my jobs!  (Not all aspects of my life are this way, though.  Just drop by my house unannounced!)  It's a challenge to punctuate the spoken word!  We don't necessarily speak in beautifully worded sentences always using correct grammatical form, folks!  So it's a challenge to place commas were they are needed so it comes across to the reader exactly how it was said.  Commas are inserted.  Paragraphs are placed.  Spellings are corrected.  Da, ta-da, ta-da!  And at the end, I am happy because I have met the challenge!  I have done my best, as the keeper of the record, to write the job and produce an accurate transcript of the proceedings that were held!  Satisfying!!!

But I have a love-hate relationship with my job.  I love that I don't work a 9:00-to-5:00 schedule.  I am not away from my boys eight, nine hours a day.  Very rarely these days am I gone from them more than a handful of hours!  Who wouldn't love that, right?!?!  Now that I am a mother, I take anywhere from two to four jobs a week.  Not bad!  The rest of the time, I am at home with my boys soaking up motherhood as much as I can!  But...there's no separation for me as far as work and family.  When I am with my family, I am constantly thinking about work.  When I am working (editing/proofreading), I am constantly thinking about not being with my boys.  Guilt for working; guilt for not working.  It never ends!  Finding time to edit is near impossible these days.  My boys need their mommy!  But my job needs me too!  And the house needs me.  And our tummies need me.  And my husband needs me.  Oh, and the dogs need me too.  I should feel lucky being so needed!

And I do.  I have so much to be thankful for.  And my job is definitely something I am thankful for!  God blessed me with an ability that not many possess, and I am grateful for that blessing.  One percent of students that attend court reporting school actually become court reporters.  O-n-e  p-e-r-c-e-n-t!!!  I am blessed.  And it is times like now when I look around me and see what all I think I'm missing out on (quality time with my boys) that God reminds me just how blessed I am.  I am not homeless.  My family never goes hungry.  All of our needs and a lot of our wants are provided.  We have our health to be thankful for.  What a huge blessing that is!!!  God has blessed me with a job that has been able to provide support for our family when we needed it the most.  A blessing I couldn't have imagined needing 10 years ago when I began my court reporting career!

Being a working mom is hard.  It's the hardest thing I have ever had to do.  But the Lord has provided this job for me and my family, and I am up for the challenge!!!  At least I think I am...