The AWESOME DU Mock Depositions

Yes, that's right. It's time for a re-cap of the day I spent a whole week stressing out about and telling myself what an embarrassment I was going to be to the profession that is stenography!

As with most situations I tend to stress out about, it wasn't that bad at all. In fact, I believe the term I used was, awesome, as in, I awesomed all over the place. Sure, it's a verb. Especially, when you're doing it so well!

When I say I awesomed all over the place, I'm referring to the fact that I did not vomit in the ladies upon arrival, I did not hyperventilate mid-depo and run from the room crying. In fact, I had a really good time. That, my friends, is awesoming like a pro!

Actually, it was a lot easier for a few reasons. One: They didn't want a bunch of parentheticals, just the questions and answers. Two: They don't want any cert pages, index pages, or appearances pages. They basically want the students to be able to see how they were speaking and that's it. Three: I had another student in the room and we were mostly able to swap off writing. Each depo was about 30 minutes, so it was nice to get breaks. Four: I had prepared like a squirrel prepares for winter. I had researched the case, gotten a glossary of terms together, created a job dictionary, and made briefs for what I thought would come up a lot. (Also, I had the amazing Jade King's help with said glossary.) Five: I had a recording device. (GASP!)

I know, I don't want to rely on audio, but give me a little break here. I have to have transcripts and while I feel I did a good job for my first time being out in a live setting, I was not fast enough nor familiar enough to produce a clean transcript and miles away from anything close to realtime. This was a learning experience. And I learned quite a bit.

Lessons learned:

A) Get a comfortable carrying case for all of your equipment, preferably with wheels.

 

I had to carry two bags. My totally awesome TokiDoki bag and my laptop bag with all of my equipment. HEAVY!

I do have a rolling bag that came with my Wave, but it doesn't fit anything but my Wave and maybe a couple notebooks.

B) Always have a super professional-looking cable bag with you!

C) If you haven't memorized the sworn statement yet, bring one with you that you can stick in an easy to see place.

D) If you don't have one, have your husband run out the morning of the event and get you a recording device. Then, while you're putting your makeup on, have him read the instructions and give you a 3 minute rundown on how to use your newly acquired device.

E) Save your finalized glossary in order to help you identify just what the hell you were trying to write, later, when you're transcribing.

F) Inject yourself with coffee and a smile!




The day went by so fast! Seriously, it was that much fun! I arrived at DU and parked in the underground garage and found the parking pass marked, Court Reporters, which made me a little happy in my... NO! Not there, you dirty readers, you. In my heart because one day I'll be a real court reporter! I headed up to the third floor and set up my equipment. I was the first one there. I moved the chairs around the conference table and set myself up where a plug was nearby, where I thought I would be close enough to everyone to hear well, and where my stuff wouldn't take up too much room. I wish that I would have gotten pics of the place, but I was too worried about doing everything right.

The law students were really personable, for the most part. It was easy to tell which students really had a passion for their studies. They knew the ins and outs of the case and put their own spin on playing attorney or witness.

There were two moments where we were all trying very hard not to crack up hysterically. The case was about a snowboarder who pretty much did too much partying while having high blood pressure and taking a medication that wasn't really for his particular condition, as well as blood doping.

One of the students took the stereotypical snowboarder attitude as he played the witness and talked about how awesome he was and how awesome his snowboarding was and how awesome his sponsorship was. The whole time I was singing, EVERYTHING IS AWESOME! In my head! It was... wait for it... AWESOME!

About 2:30 p.m. I think I began to understand what Jade was talking about when she said she has a little doze... That's great if you're fast enough, but not when you're dropping here and there like I was.

All in all, it was a great experience. And I am so completely re-energized about being a stenographer. I am so grateful that I got this opportunity and can't wait for more! I still have a ton to learn and definitely need to work on that speed, but I'm really looking forward to what this summer will bring!

Sorry, still loads of exclamation marks!!!!!!

P.S. I get extra bonus points for being able to dress professionally and turn around and go straight to work where I had to dress like Madonna in the 80s, complete with teased hair!